A Royal Winter
by Phoenix of Starlight
Summary: Second in the 'A Royal-' series. Fran and Bel are left alone on an assignment when the Varia decide to leave them out, but Fran gets a phone call and everything gets messed up... OOC-ness, cliffhangers, innuendo.
1. Chapter 1: Assignments

A Royal Winter

Chapter One

WOO~!  
Yeah, I couldn't leave A Royal Meeting as it was, even though I think I wrapped it up pretty well. Ah, this shoudn't be as long as A Royal Meeting, but I just couldn't help continuing the story. Reason being, senpai managed to actually find out where I live and she threw snow at me. She then used me to supply the marshmellows for marshmellow 'roasting' and some chopsticks to skewer the marshmellows with. I now feel very much like Fran (doesn't help that she calls me Froggy and tries to stab me with Belphagor-knife-shaped snow) Thus, I came up with the idea for the sequel.  
And yes, I'm still implying rated M-ness ... Time for my new catchphrase.

COMMENCE WRITING! (It's really not that cool...)  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

7:45 AM- Varia HQ

"What do you mean, 'too young'? We've been in every assignment you've shoved on us so far!" protested Fran.

"VOI! DON'T GO AGAINST XANXUS'S ORDERS!" shouted Squalo, flailing his sword at the kouhai.

"Shishishi~, lay that sword on Froggy and you shall be stabbed," Bel cut in, holding several silver knives in his hand.

"It's okay, senpai," Fran said, "he's just being overprotective of his lover. Much like you."

Bel blushed lightly. "The prince isn't being overprotective, he's just making sure Squalo doesn't break his favorite toy."

Fran gave Bel a deadpan glare, "Senpai, I told you not to call me that. I really prefer 'Froggy.'"

Bel rolled his eyes beneath his bangs and looked back at Squalo and Xanxus. "So you're going to leave the prince and his Froggy all alone for a whole season."

"Don't burn the place down, scum," Xanxus demanded.

"We'll try not to," Fran murmured. "I'll stop Bel-senpai from playing with matches."

"Froggy, the prince can totally handle matches," Bel protested. "Sure, senpai, sure," Fran said sarcastically.

"VOI! STOP WASTING OUR TIME AND GO MAKE-OUT SOMEWHERE!" Squalo commanded.

"Don't order the pri-"

"Senpai," interrupted Fran, "let's go make-out, it's a good idea."

Bel folded his arms, but followed as Fran started to walk away. Squalo sighed with annoyance and looked back at Xanxus. "Sure we shouldn't leave Luss too, just to be safe?" he asked.

Xanxus shook his head. "If Luss stayed behind, we'd never hear the end of it when we got back. Those two are perfectly fine on their own- though I have my doubts about Fran's cooking abilities."

"Yeah, well, they'll probably be fine, you're right. But what if they run out of food?"

"Do we care? They'll have to buy food."

"Aren't they both broke?"

"We don't care, scum."

"Voi, aren't you calling me Squalo now?" Squalo asked, glaring at his lover.

"Nope. Go get me a beer," the boss ordered. Squalo was about to protest, but Xanxus's eyes made it clear that if he were to do so, he'd be hit with a wine glass. Squalo gave in, leaving the room to fetch his boss more beer.

A few hours later...

"Froggy, entertain the prince, he's bored," Belphagor ordered, prodding Fran playfully on the shoulder. Fran, who was currently reading a book, decided to ignore the prince, which, as he very well knew, was a difficult task.

After a couple of minutes, Bel decided that not even Froggy was allowed to ignore the prince, and took out a silver knife.

STAB.

...

...

STAB.

...

STAB.

STAB.

STAB.

STAB.

STAB.

"Alright, senpai, I'll 'entertain' you," Fran finally gave up, snapping his book shut. "What do you want?" Bel remained silent, though a cheshire grin spread over his face and he shishi'd. Fran frowned and crossed his arms. "No, senpai, that's all you've wanted from me since we woke up. In fact, that's pretty much all you've wanted at all lately. I am NOT your sex slave."

Bel pouted, but understood what his kouhai was saying. "Alright, fine. We can do something else. But what should we do... hmmm..." The prince sat down next to Fran, leaning against him so much that he was kind of crushing the smaller boy.

"Why not go outside?" Fran suggested. Bel immediately stood back up.

"LET'S GO!" With that, he grabbed Fran's arm and started walking down another one of those boring halls that Fran was sure they didn't need. After a few minutes of being dragged, they reached the front door. "Don't spoil anything, but the prince is going to make Froggy go first," Bel said, closing his eyes, opening the door and pushing Fran out. Seeing as Fran didn't expect it, he tripped, though he really didn't seem to mind.

He minded when he landed face first in a pile of snow.

Belphagor heard the crunch and looked up, immediately bursting into laughter. He walked into the snow with Fran, threw some of it into the air, and helped his kouhai back up. Fran looked pretty pissed off. Bel chuckled and brushed the snow off his kouhai's face before pressing his lips to the kouhai's. Fran kissed back as an automatic response, and it warmed him up a bit, so he was rather thankful for the chance.

Bel soon pulled back, remembering what his kouhai had just told him. "Shishishi~, the prince never knew it snowed."

"We're in Italy, senpai," Fran said, rolling his eyes. "And didn't you notice how cold it was here?"

"Nope," the prince replied simply, before noticing just how much snow was around them. It didn't take much thought to come up with something to do. He grinned and picked up more snow.

"Don't eat it," his teal-haired lover advised him, standing back up. He'd only taken three steps away from the prince when he was hit in the back with a snowball.

"Ushishishishi~! Didn't plan to," Bel agreed, already preparing more weapons. Fran managed to dodge the next one, and was thankful when his frog hat took the following blow. "Shishishi~! Come on, Froggy, fight back~!" the prince called, looking at the icicles nearby and taking note of their resemblance to knives. He decided that they were good weapons as soon as he noted that he could stab with them. He broke one off the door frame and threw it at Fran. But, being used to throwing actual knives, his aim was a bit off, and he only managed to stab the snow beside Fran. He was halfway through a groan of complaint when he was hit in the face with a chunk of fairly soft snow that had been thrown by his kouhai, who hadn't scrunched it up into a tightly-packed ball just for the sake of being nice. But, being the prince, he decided that he didn't like being hit with snow. "Froggy, don't hit the prince, that's not very nice."

"I was just following your orders, senpai, you told me to fight back," the younger boy argued. "And you're almost twenty-five, so take it like a man."

"I'll be taking it like a prince, Froggy, my age has nothing to do with whether or not you can hit me."

Fran walked up to the prince and managed to brush all the snow out of his senpai's bangs, "Sorry, senpai." Bel suddenly grinned and pushed his kouhai just hard enough to make him fall backwards. Fran fell into the snow once more, and he really wasn't happy about it. "Senpai!" he complained, "I agree to putting up with your 'princeliness' yet AGAIN, and you push me into the snow. I'm your uke, you better treat me right."

Bel giggled childishly and pretended to be pushed into the snow as well, letting himself fall backwards into the snow right beside his kouhai. "Shishishi~, sorry Froggy."

Fran smiled and took the prince's hand. "I love you, senpai."

"Love you too, Froggy."

The two looked into each other's eyes for a bit, before Bel decided snow wasn't a great thing to lie in. "The prince is wet," he muttered.

Fran laughed lightly. "Bel-senpai, could you have only worded it that way?" he asked, trying to settle down.

Bel looked confused, "What?"

"Oh, nothing, it's just knowledge I happen to have from the time when I was actually straight," Fran explained, "You don't need to get it."

Bel seemed fairly content with that, very much so glad that his kouhai had finally stopped trying to deny that he was gay for the prince, and stood up, brushing the flakes of snow off him the best he could. "Come on, Froggy, aren't you going to get up?" he asked his kouhai.

"Eh, I guess so. It's colder without you down here."

Bel cheshire grinned when his kouhai was back up, which convinced the illusionist that the prince wasn't safe, so he backed up. "Push me again and I'll cast an illusion of me kissing Master Mukuro."

Belphagor tensed for a moment, before throwing a knife into his kouhai's side. "Don't even THINK about it."

Fran almost giggled, but caught himself. "I wouldn't, senpai," he managed to say in a gentle voice as he jerked the knife out of his side, "... ever."

Bel calmed, and walked up to his kouhai. "Thanks." With that single word, he kissed Fran once more, pulling him closer by his waist.

About an hour later, the two were already back inside. Fran had totally collapsed on the couch, Bel leaning against him. "Snow is cold," Bel commented. "I forget that every year."

"As expected of you," the younger illusionist mumbled.

RING-RING-RING-

Fran dug his cell phone out of his pocket as quickly as he could manage. "Hello?"

(Guess who?)

"You're kidding, right? Master, no one can forget that voice," Fran said, sitting up instantly.

(Kufufufu~! Aw~, Fran, you're cute as ever.)

"Mukuro?" Bel asked, leaning towards Fran's phone.

(Is that Prince the Ripper? How are you?)

"Shishishi~, the prince is good, what about you and your lover? Ah... Hibari?" Bel asked, partially squishing Fran in order to talk to the kouhai's illusions master.

(Hibari is doing fairly well, though I am rather annoyed that he seems to be trying to get me into a dress lately, do not ask why.)

"Shishi? Alrighty then."

"It's unusual for you to call me, Master, is something going on?" Fran asked, reclaiming possession of his phone.

(Okay, fine, I'll cut it short. We have an assignment, we need two strong illusionists. Are you in?)

"Master, I thought you were in prison."

(I was temporarily released by Tsunayoshi in order to fulfill said mission.)

"Chrome can't do it? Lal Mirch?" Fran pressed.

(Lal Mirch appears to be sick and Chrome is too busy with training.)

"... How long is it?" Fran questioned, looking anxiously over at his lover, who he really didn't wish to leave.

(That depends on us.)

"I'll think about it, let me see if it's okay with senpai."

Bel glanced at Fran upon hearing his name. Fran would only ask permission if it were something serious, so Bel was very suspiscious of that older illusionist now. Even though the conflict had mostly ended with Mukuro realizing that Hibari loved him, the prince still didn't trust the Mist-flamed Vongola Guardian.

"Senpai," Fran called, "Master wants me to go on an assignment with him."

"Can the prince come?" Bel asked.

"Uhh... Master, can senpai come with us?"

There was a pause on the other end.

(Well... I very well understand why you would want him to come along, but Fran, he would hold us back. He's not an illusionist, so he would have great trouble staying sane if he we were to fight against an enemy illusionist.)

Fran understood- it wouldn't be safe for Bel to tag along. "Senpai, for your own sake, you wouldn't be able to come with us."

Bel sighed and pulled Fran into his lap. "Would it be for long?" the prince asked.

"When the assignment is over, we can come home," Fran replied. Bel rested his head on his kouhai's shoulder.

"... You may go," he agreed, "but be back soon."

"I will, senpai," Fran promised, leaning up to kiss his senpai once more. Apparently, Mukuro could tell what was going on.

(Now, now, you two, save it for when I'm off the phone here. Fran, take a train north to Florrence, alright? That's all the information they need- Oh, but show them your Varia I.D. card.)

"Understood."

(You need to leave in a week, so make your senpai feel loved before you go, alright?)

Fran laughed lightly. "Okay, Master."

([Hey Rokudo, would you pay attention to you OWN lover some time?] Ah, sorry Fran, I've got to go. Coming, Kyouya~!)

Fran snapped his phone shut, amused that Hibari still seemed to be a bit jealous of him for being so closely related to Mukuro.

"The prince is going to be all alone in a week. The prince is not happy."

"Don't worry, senpai, I'll at least be here for your birthday," Fran soothed his lover, embracing the prince. "And I'll be back soon."

"Okay," Bel mumbled. "Be in a maid outfit on the prince's birthday, just a hint towards what you should get him."

"Sure senpai," Fran agreed, though in a sarcastic voice. "I'll borrow one of Luss's."

"On second thought, Froggy's fine as he is," the prince said the second Lussuria became involved.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Fran chuckled, caressing the prince's hair softly. "Let's make this a good week."

-End Chapter

And there's chapter one. Well, that snowball fight really had nothing to do with anything. Oh well. ^^ I came up with a plot, so its all good~!  
Fran: Great. You're starting this all again?  
Belphagor: And you plan to leave the prince alone for a certain time? Oh, the prince is NOT happy about this.  
Me: Sorry, Bel, it's all part of the plot.  
Mukuro: Yay~! I get to see Fran again.  
Me: That was a bit OOC, Mukuro.  
Hibari: He's happy 'cause I let him be seme first today.  
Me: *silence*  
Fran: I personally hoped it was all over. There's no way your senpai OR NeverMakeSense will be able to make a '63'rd Winter'.  
Me: That's a good thing. :)  
Byakuran: Ne, am I gonna show up in any of this?  
Me: Probably not. X)  
Byakuran: *slowly frowns*  
Me: ._. Uhm... Please review~?  
Hibari: You're so unconfident.  
Me: Well fine, you do it then.  
Hibari: REVIEW OR BE BITTEN TO DEATH!  
Me: O.O


	2. Chapter 2: Storm Flames

A Royal Winter Chapter two

Alright, I'm really not going to blah over everyhing, but I should mention since I forgot to do so in the first chap...  
I DON'T OWN KHR!  
I actually don't think I've been doing disclaimers at all lately... O.o COMMENCE- Fran: Don't even say it. Just write.  
Me: ... okay...  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

DEC 22

"Happy birthday, senpai," Fran said, smiling at the prince, who happened to be asleep still.

"Nngg... don't push the prince," Bel complained on instinct, seeing as that was Fran's usual wake-up call.

"I didn't push the prince, I just told him happy birthday," Fran chuckled, softly caressing his senpai's cheek.

"Oh... *yawns* well you remembered before the prince, the prince congratulates Froggy for that," Bel mumbled tiredly, before suddenly realizing just how important today was. He sat up immediately, shouting out, "OHMIGOD IT'S THE PRINCE'S BIRTHDAY!"

Fran laughed happily when he saw that his senpai was back to normal. "Right, what do you want to do first? Don't suggest anything sexual, save that for tonight."

"The prince is thinking...," Bel said, "... ... ... ... The prince... ... ... hmm... Froggy!"

"Yes?"

"Tell the prince what he wants to do."

"... I can't exactly decide that for you senpai."

"Yes, you can, because the prince told you to."

"Alright... hm... I've got an idea, but you'll have to stay here. Permission to momentarily take the hat off?"

"Sure. Be quick."

"I will!" Fran called, taking the hat off and setting it on the ground before running off somewhere.

'What is Froggy up to...?' the prince murmured.

It wasn't long before Fran burst back into the room, holding two dresses, one blood-red and short cut, and one a deep blue and long cut. "Choose," he ordered.

"Uh, blood-red...?" Bel suggested, barely having time to process what was going on; he was about to ask, but Fran left again before he had the chance. After a couple confused minutes, Bel sort of figured it out.

'Where did he get those anyway...?' he wondered to himself. 'Well, I suppose it doesn't really matter, the question is whether I'll be seeing Froggy in that.'

* * *

Fran anxiously looked at himself in the mirror. 'I look like a girl,' he inwardly growled. He folded his arms and didn't look away from the image. 'Why did he have to choose the one that showed so much leg? In fact, how do the actual girls put up with this?'

'What are you talking about, Fran?' asked a deep voice in the back of his head.

'Master, not now, I'm dressing up for senpai.'

'Kufufu~, that's so sweet!'

'Master, go get in a dress for YOUR lover. Let's see if you can still call it 'sweet'.'

'Oh, I'm MUCH more masculine than you, so I really don't need to, in fact, I think the dress would suit Kyouya better.'

'Seriously, I don't have time to talk, I'm busy worrying over how I look.'

'Fran, you really do act like a girl sometimes, it makes me suspiscious.'

'Master, get out of my head! We're done talking!'

'Aww, that's not very nice, Fran. But I agree, you and your dress is more important than your Master.'

Fran cast an illusion on himself so that his Master wouldn't be able to bother him further. He sighed at his reflection once more before walking out of the spare room and back to Bel's room. He opened the door and walked in, crossing his arms and waiting for the prince's reaction.

Bel would not stop staring. It was as though his eyes were literally glued to the kouhai. His mouth was hanging open a little from the shock. "Say something, senpai," Fran said, uncomfortable with the silence.

"Froggy is really, REALLY cute today," the prince barely managed, getting off the bed and slowly approaching what appeared to be his prey.

"Okay, I put on a dress for you, I'm not going to just take it off because this gets you turned on, I really want to save that for later," Fran told his slowly approaching senpai.

"Ushishishi~, didn't know Froggy knew the prince so well," Bel giggled as he dragged Fran into an embrace.

"I don't like wearing this, so how long do you plan to have me in it?" Fran asked, "Counting out your plans to take it off yourself."

"Shishi~! That's alright, Froggy, you're pretty cute as you are already, but can the prince take a picture of you?"

"I suppose," Fran gave in. Bel happily went to get his phone. When he returned, he said 'say Varia', which Fran flatly refused, but the prince got his picture anyway.

"Shishi~! You're almost cuter when you look annoyed," Bel commented. Fran rolled his eyes and went back to get his uniform back on.

"Girls do a lot for their appearance," he informed Bel before leaving.

"Shishi~, well so does a prince, Froggy."

* * *

December 24

"You know, senpai, it's Christmas Eve," Fran pointed out, lazily drawing circles on the prince's chest with his index finger. Bel sighed and looked at him.

"Christmas? What's that?"

"... Nothing...," Fran lied, moving a bit closer into the prince's side and letting his hand just rest where it was, "I'm sure you always thought it was late birthday presents, seeing as your birthday is the twenty-second."

"Ushishi~, and if you forget it, you get stabbed," Bel chuckled, rolling onto his side to face his kouhai. "Ne, is it bad to just stay in bed for the rest of the week?" he asked.

"Master told me to make you feel loved, and as far as I know, this is your favorite pass time. But yes, it's probably really unhealthy to just be in bed, not eating, just doing certain romance-related events."

"Aw, whatever happened to the shameless little Froggy who would've said flat-out that he was just being raped?" Bel asked.

"Well, now it's the shameless prince, for one, and two, it's not rape if I don't mind."

"Good point, shishishi~"

Fran yawned and stretched. "Let's eat something before we both starve, though..."

The prince giggled and ruffled Fran's hair. "You'll have to cook."

"Knock it off," Fran mumbled, lazily batting the prince away from him, "I know that..."

"Shishishi~! I'll be shocked if you actually manage, you're usually all tired after..."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm working on my lazy problems, now move over so I can get out of the bed." Bel rolled over to let Fran crawl over him, and watched the kouhai walk, or limp, towards the door.

"I'll be right there, just let the prince- hey, wait, why are you dressed anyway?"

Fran shut the door instead of answering, leaving a very confused prince behind him. 'Okay... wierd moment...,' the prince thought, before getting out of bed to get dressed.

* * *

Fran supported himself with the counter. 'Okay, last night and this morning was a bad idea,' he thought, gingerly rubbing his side. 'But what else do I give, really?'

'Hey, Fran!'

The kouhai almost fell over upon hearing Mukuro's telepathic voice. 'Master?'

'I forgot to tell you something.'

'What's that?'

'After doing a bit of research with the clips from our Hell ring training together, I made a discovery,' Mukuro told him.

'Don't play coy with me. Just tell me, I'm in a bad mood.'

'Well, that's not my fault,' Mukuro mumbled indigantly, 'I wanted to tell you that you might have a bit of Storm flames in you.' (A/N: I'm making it up for the sake of the story, okay? Don't ask about it, it will help the plot, hint hint.)

'Do I really?' Fran wondered, holding his hand out in front of him.

'And hear this, this is the cutest part.'

'I don't think I've heard you say cute before.'

'Just listen, it's your right ring finger.'

Fran raised a brow. 'Is that so? Prove it.'

'Don't have to. Tell your prince charming to give you a ring.'

'Master!' Fran protested, blushing, 'he'd think I want to marry him!'

'Do you not?' Mukuro asked, 'You can tell him the reason, he'd understand.'

'Then we'd never get breakfast,' Fran inwardly sighed, 'leave it to Master to come up with the craziest things...'

'Fran, not while I can read your thoughts, please.'

'Then get out of my head, I'll talk to him.'

'Alright, thanks~!'

Fran heard the echo of his Master's chuckle before he felt the older illusionist's presence disappear altogether.

"Froggy?" called Bel, walking into the kitchen, "Hm? You're a bit pale, what's up?"

"A-actually senpai, Master just reached me through his telepathic thing that he does, and he said..."

"... What? What did he say?" Bel asked.

"... Would you mind giving me one of your Storm-class rings for a second?" the kouhai asked. The prince did so, handing Fran one of his spare rings. The kouhai slipped it onto his ring finger on his right hand, and the prince watched, grinning widely when he saw the Fran do so. "Take a sudden intrest in the color red?" he asked the teal-haired assassin. "Or do you feel really close to the prince now? It's only been a few months-"

"Senpai," Fran cut off, "look."

Bel looked closely at the ring, and gasped when he saw the smallest Storm flame dancing on top of the red gem that was set in the ring. "Fran, you...," he whispered.

Fran nodded slowly, "I have a wave of Storm flames."

The prince captured Fran's lips in a kiss as soon as the words were spoken. It didn't last very long, but it was enough. Bel hugged Fran tightly after that, cheshire grin fixed in place. "Does this mean you can open Mink's box?" he asked.

"Yeah... probably," Fran agreed, not tearing his eyes away from the ruby flame. He felt Bel hand him the box weapon, and held it before him. "Sure you're going to let a peasant open the prince's weapon?" he questioned.

"The prince has told you, Froggy is special," the prince murmured. Fran smiled and hit his own flames into Bel's box weapon. Mink exited casually, materializing on Fran's hat. However, the mink recognized that Fran wasn't its master rather quickly, and hopped onto Bel's shoulder instead, nuzzling into the prince's cheek. "Shishishi~, bummer, he still doesn't like you," Bel giggled, before leaning down to kiss Fran again. As soon as Mink understood what Bel was about to do, he leapt off the prince's shoulder and began to explore the house once more. The kitchen was particularly intresting because the scent of Lussuria's cooking was always lingering on the air.

The couple parted once again. "Hey Froggy, the prince just got an idea," Bel said.

"Hm? What's up?" Fran asked.

"What if Froggy took Mink on his mission?" Bel suggested. Fran's eyes widened slightly.

"But senpai, you'd be left totally alone," Fran pointed out, "wouldn't you get lonely?"

"The prince is used to having to entertain himself," Bel replied seriously after a pause. Fran frowned.

"I really hate leaving you here, senpai," he whispered. The prince held out his arms, and Fran obediently hugged him. "I promise, if I'm not back within a ten day period, you can stab as many knives into me as you want, and I'll wear the frog hat in my sleep, and-"

"Shhh," Bel hushed, "Just be back soon."

Fran quieted and sighed lightly. "I guess I'm going to miss you more than I thought," he breathed.

"If you take Mink, you'll have a part of the prince with you," Bel reminded him, "and it's not like I haven't been left alone at the base before. But they usually did regret it when they did that- shishishi."

"Mink doesn't even like me," Fran reminded the prince.

"Well, he'll have to learn. Plus, he should help you if you get into any fights. If there's something he hates more than you, it's an enemy."

"That's comforting," Fran said, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. The prince giggled, before looking at the refrigerator.

"Hey, do you want the prince to cook? You still look pretty tired," he suggested.

"If you cook, we'll both die," Fran muttered.

"Well then, let's both die, there's probably instructions on the boxes or something," the prince said with his usual grin.

"Nope, you'll have to figure it all out yourself," Fran told him. Bel's grin wavered slightly.

"The prince is a genius, he can do it," he insisted.

"Alright, fine," the kouhai gave in, moving to take a seat at the table. Mink hopped up onto a chair beside him, then onto the table. He sat down in the center of the table, waving it's flame-covered tail around in the air. It grinned manically and gave a high 'shishishi' before leaping off the table again to crawl up to Bel.

About an hour later, and after MANY failed attempts at a decent meal, Bel finally managed to set some food on the table. He sat down next to Fran with a sigh of defeat. "Cooking is hard," he complained.

"And after all this, you manage to make instant noodles. Nice, senpai."

"Shut up."

-End Chapter

(This has been reuploaded 'cause I [rather stupidly] got the day of Bel's birthday wrong the first time. Biiiiig mistake.)

Yay~! Chapter two!  
Bel: What kind of ridiculous chapter ending is that?  
Me: I'm sure people love it when I end with something funny.  
Bel: *glares*  
Fran: This is soooo boring.  
Me: It'll get better, just wait!  
Mukuro: You make me look all cute and then you have me refer to myself as 'masculine.' Nice.  
Me: You're reading too much into this, Mukuro.  
Hibari: I'm not jealous of Fran. I've had Mukuro for how long now?  
Me: Idk, a month?  
Hibari: *rolls eyes* Leave it to the author to forget important details.  
Me: Stop being such a downer.  
Hibari: Hn.  
Byakuran: I want to be in this.  
Me: No.  
Byakuran: X^X Me: Too bad!  
Mammon: Hey, you peoples, what's up?  
Bel & Fran: *runs*  
Me: Dude, you scared away the main characters. Mammon: Whatever. Hey, am I going to be in this?  
Me: Possibly. PLEASE REVIEW~~!  
Hibari: Better, but I still like my version.


	3. Chapter 3: Trains

A Royal Winter Chapter three

Well, I have big plans for this fic, and I plan to leave the Varia HQ now.  
Sorry to skip about five days, but we're going on an assignment~!  
Fran: We? You mean me.  
Me: Yeah, pretty much.  
COMME-  
Fran: Ahem!  
Me: ... Sorry.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

11:45 AM, about five days after I left off- (does that make it New Year's...?)

Bel looked up at his kouhai, arms folded behind his head, lying in the kouhai's lap. "It's almost time," he whispered.

"I know," Fran agreed as he softly stroked the prince's hair. "I already can't wait to be back."

"... Call the prince at every chance."

"I will."

Bel yawned widely, then bringing an arm over to rub his tired eyes. "The prince will be waking up at every hour just because Froggy won't be there with him."

"Aww, senpai," Fran murmured, loosely hugging the prince, "I'll be thinking about you when I wake up looking at Mukuro."

Bel groaned, reaching up to whack Fran's shoulder. "Don't...," he whimpered.

Fran chuckled and pulled the prince a bit closer. "You know I won't."

"Attention!" called out a deep voice, "The eleven-fifty train to Florrence is boarding now, passengers please step up." (A/N: Does that sound more like an airplane sort of thing to say...?)

Fran sighed as the prince moved off of him. "Bye, Froggy," he murmured. "Bye, senpai," Fran returned, before leaning in to kiss his senpai passionately one last time. They parted soon as the kouhai started to head for the train. "I'll call as soon as I get off of the train," he told the prince, hesitance clear in his eyes as he moved closer.

"You better!" the prince called back, "Make Mink obey you, that will make you a bit more suited to be a princess!"

"I'm a guy, senpai!" Fran said before turning to the person who was taking tickets. "I don't have a ticket," he told the man.

"Then you can't-"

"I have this," the young illusionist interrupted, holding up the card that had 'Vongola Family, Varia, Mist Guardian- Fran' written clearly on it. It was short, sweet and to the point, the only thing Xanxus would bother getting for his Guardians.

"Oh, I'm sorry, please, come aboard," the man said instantly, even giving a slight bow. Fran nodded and stepped onto the train. A couple more steps and he saw rows of seats, either along the windows or back-to-back in the center of the train. He sighed and walked to take the first window seat. (A/N: I fly often, so I really just know the airplane terms here.)

He looked out the window and was a bit frustrated he could no longer see Belphagor.

'I wonder how long I can last without him,' the Mist Guardian wondered. He began to picture Bel in his mind.

'That silky blonde hair... Suprisingly gentle lips... Handsome, toned chest, and the biggest-'

'Fran!'

Fran almost fell out of his seat. 'What the hell?'

'Yes, Fran, Hell has come JUST to bug you.'

'Master? Come on, I was in the middle of something!' Fran protested indigantly, a rather deep blush on his face.

'I know. But, seeing as I can currently read your thoughts, I figured stopping you there was appropriate.'

'Master, don't contact me when you know I'm fantasizing about Bel.'

'You shouldn't do that in the first place, it's unhealthy.'

'As if you don't do that with Hibari.'

'Shut up. Are you on the train?'

'Yes, Master, I am on the train, wouldn't have to imagine if I wasn't.'

'Right, well I had to ask. And... I'd advise not distracting yourself anymore.'

'Tch.'

'Don't mentally click that tongue at me.'

'Sorry.'

'Let me know when you're off the train so I can find you.'

'Okay.'

Fran felt his Master's presence disappear altogether, and decided to get a book out of his bag. He'd left getting books to his senpai, so he prayed that there was something other than a dictionary there. He managed to find one and looked at the title. 'Frogs- Everything you need to know'. Fran groaned, but opened the book. Gotta take what's given to you.

Bel began the walk back to Varia headquarters. 'Entertain myself? I've done that loads of times before,' he thought to himself as he kicked up some snow. 'Just put hair dye in everyone's shampoo and I'm satisfied,' he told himself as he continued. 'Last time, the whole place was filled with traps.'

"Ushishi~!" he chuckled as he remembered how infuriated Squalo had gotten. The shark had gone in to total rage when he looked in the mirror and saw that his silver hair had been dyed pink. That had to be Bel's favorite prank. Lussuria hadn't really minded until he realized that all the food had been rearranged just for the sake of annoying him. That had earned Bel a scolding. The prince wondered if there were any more tricks he had up his sleeve. He checked. Nope. Nothing up his sleeve.

"Ushishishishi~," he giggled, amused at himself. He kicked more snow and frowned when nothing came up. He bent next to the un-exploding pile. '... What was it that always solves problems? Oh yeah-'

STAB.

Mukuro shivered as a breeze swept over him. Some places could be so unforgiving. He cast a 'real illusion' of another jacket over himself. That made four layers. He heard a ring from his pocket and was quick to answer the phone. "Hello?"

(Rokudo, how long do you plan to be gone?)

"Sorry, Kyouya, I don't know. It depends on me and Fran; as soon as we finish our assignment we can return."

(That herbivore is getting Vendicere notices about you needing to return to prison as soon as this is complete.)

"He should be able to fend them off- he's the boss of the Vongola, remember?"

(Hn. Well, if you go straight to prison without seeing me, you WILL be bitten to death.)

"I know, Kyouya, I know."

(Stop saying my name like that.)

"No."

(Hn.)

"How are the kids?" Mukuro asked with a smirk.

(Rokudo, if we had children, you would be wearing a dress.)

"Stop with that, you'd be the woman."

(My voice is deeper.)

"Well, then you'd be on steroids or something."

(Rokudo, you have long hair, a soft voice, and a drop-dead BEAUTIFUL pair of eyes. You're the woman.)

"Well thanks for the compliments... But I really do think you should be the chick here."

(Don't say chick, it creeps me out.)

"Aha!"

(What?)

"It 'creeps you out.' That's feminine, yeah?"

(Rokudo.)

"Right, fine. I'm more feminine here, but I also have more fangirls."

(That doesn't matter because girls like the girly guys.)

"Well whatever. I've got to go."

(Don't be angry, I'm just playing with you.)

"Don't worry, Kyouya, I'm not."

(Alright. I love you, herbivore.)

"Love you too, Kyouya. See you later."

(Yeah.)

Mukuro snapped his phone shut, a smile on his face. He looked around. People were staring at him. "Uhm...," Mukuro managed, "Is there a problem with gay people in this town...? Kufufufufufu~?"

"Bossu~? That call was from Ryohei-chan, he says Mukuro went on an assignment and that he's meeting up with Fran-chan to complete it."

"I don't care, it just means you lot are in for a bunch of pranks when we get back," Xanxus told his Sun guardian, a grin barely visible on his lips.

"VOI! IF HE MESSES WITH MY HAIR AGAIN, I'LL KILL HIM!" shouted Squalo, flailing his sword from no one in particular.

"No you won't, shark trash," Xanxus growled, throwing a wine glass at the other.

"But Bossu, if Bel-chan and Fran-chan are separated, won't they get lonely~?" asked Lussuria bending down to pet his peacock box weapon.

"Do I care? They're assassins of the Varia. They should be fine."

"B-but... they're lovers too."

"Yeah, again, don't care."

"If you were separated from Squ-chan, wouldn't you be upset?" Lussuria pressed, now hugging his box weapon. For once, Xanxus threw a wine glass at Lussuria, but didn't answer the question.

Hibari folded his arms behind his head, glad that he was able to faintly detect the scent of Mukuro on their bed. 'Damned pineapple better be quick,' he thought as he hugged the illusionist's pillow close to his chest. 'Smelling him doesn't even bring me close to the joy of seeing him.'

-End Chapter

This and probably the next chapter are going to be fairly short cliffhangers.

Please review!  
Hibari: *hits with tonfa* I told you to be more aggressive with that!  
Me: Sorry! REVIEW OR BE BITTEN TO DEATH! Better?  
Hibari: Uhm... no. On second thought, your fine with 'please review'.

Me: -.-


	4. Chapter 4: Chill

A Royal Meeting Chapter Four

Okay! I am exremely eager to start writing this chapter, and get ready for a huge shock!  
I mean really, you're not going to expect it at all!  
You'll probably hate me! :D Fran: Stop that. Just write.  
Me: Hai~!  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1:00 PM

Fran yawned tiredly and closed his book. "Well, I know everything I need to in order to have a pet frog. This must be the book that senpai read when he first met me," he said under his breath.

"Hm?" said the person next to him.

"Ah, nothing, just talking to myself," the younger boy said.

"Oh."

Fran looked out the window. It was snowing again. 'When did we get into all this forest area...?' he wondered to himself.

RUMBLE.

"Ah," Fran grabbed his arm rest. "What the..."

The train began to shake violently, and Fran felt a surge of cold fear pierce through him. People around him went into a panic, some clutching young children close to their chests, others clutching each other. 'Without a doubt, this is NOT normal train behavior,' Fran thought, looking around him with suprise.

A few moments earlier...

The person who happened to be driving the train had been sitting there calmly, checking around him for anything that might be a problem. Nothing was out of the ordinary. Well, that was before he saw it.

An abnormal puff of mist shielded the front of the train for a moment, before a phantom-like man appeared, leaning casually against the window. "Mind telling me where this train's headed?" he asked. Though he shouldn't have been able to hear it, the voice was as clear as one of his own thoughts.

It was too much of a suprise for the man, who hadn't ever seen, or heard, such a thing in his life. He fainted, roughly hitting a lever that would cause the train to try and turn against the tracks. As the train began to shake, the phantom vanished with a childish laughter.

It wasn't long before a loud crashing noise interrupted the peaceful silence of the forest.

Back in the Varia headquarters, Bel really FELT the blood leave his face. Something had happened. It was as though...

'Fran!' he thought fearfully.

He realized that he was still in the base and tried to calm himself. 'I'm being paranoid. Nothing would happen to him, he's a very strong kouhai. He's got a Hell ring. He's got Mink. Most importantly, he has Mukuro to protect him.'

Still, he couldn't regain his composure. He couldn't help thinking his precious frog had been injured in battle, had gotten lost in a crowd when trying to find Mukuro, had been KILLED in a battle.

Never once did it cross the prince's mind that the train may have crashed.

Mukuro, despite the six extra illusionary layers that he'd put on, suddenly felt very, VERY cold.

'Fran...!' he thought, eyes wide. Something was wrong. There was something blocking his telepathic communications with the boy. There was something preventing contact with the young guardian.

'Why can't I telepathically reach him?' the illusionist thought anxiously. 'Oh dear... what if they took the wrong path? What if he lied about getting on the train at all? What if he's actually back with his prince charming?'

Even the intelligent illusionist didn't expect a crash.

No one expected it. No one would suspect it. It was perfect. And the laughter could be heard in the distance.

-End Chapter

Alright, I know, it's short. But the next chapter will be nice and long~! I wonder if I should say that it was actually my mom's idea for the whole train crash scene... hmm... nah, I'll take the credit and just read her the reviews. Do you hate me for this? That's expected.  
I plan to continue soon~! PLEASE REVIEW~! There's more to come... Hibari: Hn.


	5. Chapter 5: I See Dead People

A Royal Winter Chapter five

Wooooooooooooooo~!  
Do you all still hate me for that last chap? Thought so. Oh well, there WILL be a happy ending, trust me, I did that for the first one too.  
Fran: *rolls eyes* Yeah, senpai will find a mirror and fall in love with himself all over again.  
Bel: Is Froggy dead?  
Me: Now if you let me write, you'd find out!  
Bel: *silence*

2:15 PM

"Oh dear," Mukuro whispered, placing a hand over his mouth as he heard the news.

"However, we will be sending a rescue team out in order to see if there were any survivors. Even so, for now, remember, you have to stay calm and don't make reckless moves, because for all we know, everyone died," said the man in a serious tone. Mukuro felt a searing pain in his chest upon hearing the heartbreaking words.

'Fran is... dead...?'

Bel answered his phone without even looking at the name. "Hi, Froggy~! About time you called the prince, he was starting to get worried."

(...)

Bel grew serious when he didn't hear a reply. "... Froggy...?"

(Prince the Ripper, it's not Fran.)

"Rokudo...?" Bel murmured, "Where's Fran...? Isn't he there with you?"

(Belphagor, the train that Fran was on... it crashed.)

"What?" Bel said, sitting up straight, blood-red eyes wide with shock. "Crashed? How?"

(No one knows how or why)

"..."

(We can't be sure if he's alive or dead. All we know is that the train won't be coming here. I don't know what happened to Fran. My telepathy isn't getting across, though... so... so he might be...)

Bel could fill in the blank. 'He's... he's dead...?'

"No," the prince said. "It can't be true... he can't be."

(Bel, I know it's hard to believe-)

"Fran wouldn't die so easily!" the prince all but shouted. He quieted, feeling the tears stream down his face. "Tell me your joking..."

(I'm sorry, Belphagor, but I cannot give false comfort.)

"... I'll notify Xanxus."

(Good. I'll tell Tsunayoshi. A rescue team is going to be sent out, so we just need to wait.)

"... Alright... Call back after you talk to the Vongola kid."

(Right. Bye.)

Bel snapped his phone shut, then reopened it to speed dial Xanxus.

The boss took the call at an agonizingly slow pace. He waited for it to ring five times before answering.

"Who the hell is bothering me now?" he asked.

(The prince.)

"What happened? Someone better have died!"

(Someone died.)

The boss raised a brow, and clicked his phone onto speaker so the rest of the Varia could hear. "Who died?" he asked.

(Fran! Fran's train crashed! Mukuro can't reach him, and if Mukuro can't... *sniffle* Bossu, they're going to send out a rescue team, or so Mukuro says. But... even telepathy isn't getting to Fran... we think... he's... he's probably...)

Xanxus was shocked, even if he didn't show it. Squalo's eyes were wide, his mouth hanging open slightly. Lussuria had both hands over his mouth, and Levi was grumbling about how they'd worked so hard to find a replacement for Mammon and then they lost the replacement.

"Does the Vongola brat know about this?" the boss asked.

(Mukuro's *sniffle* telling him now.)

"Alright, pull yourself together, prince trash. We won't know for sure until the rescue team returns. Sit tight and wait."

(... Okay... I'll tell you when we find anything out.)

"Okay."

He shut his phone and looked around. It was going to be a while before anyone was back in the mood to kill.

4:26 PM

...

'Breath.'

'Breath means life.'

'I can breath.'

'So I'm... alive...?'

'What happened?'

'My head hurts.'

'Ugh, what am I lying on? It feels so wierd.'

'... I can't see anything.'

'Maybe I should open my eyes.'

...

GASP.  
Fran's eyes flew open, and he tried to sit up. He muffled his own yelp of pain when his left wrist touched the ground. He looked at it. 'Broken,' he thought bitterly. He looked around. 'The train was shaking... then we... crashed?' he wondered. He looked down and slapped his good hand over his mouth when he realized that the strange thing he was lying on was a person. They didn't move. They didn't twitch. Blood spattered their faces. They were no longer alive.

Fran gingerly crawled away from the corpse, then looked around him. There was shattered glass spread across the ground, his cell phone had been broken, the train had flipped onto its side, and there was blood soaking the fresh snow. Fran looked down at his waist. 'Good. Mink is still there.' He noticed his book bag lying only a few feet away, and hastily crawled over to it. 'Did anyone else survive...?' he wondered, looking around. There were many bodies that had been tossed out of broken windows, but not one moved. He looked back to Mink's box. After a pause, he lit his Storm ring and hit the flames into the box. Mink appeared beside him, and looked around. Upon not seeing its usual master, it looked to Fran.

"Arru," it growled. (A/N: I really wanted to say 'pao' for that snarling noise Mink makes, but I don't want to bring 'Master Pao Pao' into all this. :\ )

"Mink, listen," Fran said, "Bel-senpai's not here. We're lost in the middle of a forest. Most likely it's just you and me. We'll have to work together to get out alive- you need me to stay out of your box, and I need you so I don't go crazy with all this."

The mink looked considerate for a moment, before suddenly walking off towards the train. "What are you...?" Fran trailed off and just decided to follow the box weapon. It hopped up onto the giant, crushed machine, and slipped in through a broken window. "Alright, you can see in there, but I can't, so be quick."

After a few minutes of waiting, The mink returned, a bag in its mouth. It dropped the bag beside Fran, waving its flam-coated tail happily.

"Shishishi~!" it said in a high pitched voice.

Fran looked inside the bag, and was suprised to find it filled with food. "Wow, how did you find this?"

The mink looked away and seemed to blush lightly, the mirror of Bel's cheshire grin tweaking it's expression.

"Alright, I won't ask," Fran sighed, before reaching to stroke its fur softly. "Thanks."

"Shishi~!"

Fran looked around once more. "Alright, we shouldn't travel with too much, so we'll take the food, but we'll have to leave the books. Hm...," Fran thought aloud. "Well, if they send out a rescue team we should leave something to indicate where we're headed." With that, he took all the books from his book bag and made an arrow perpindicular to the tracks. Mink looked confused, and seemed to say in the following growl,

"Why are we heading in the opposite direction of the tracks?"

"I'm an illusionist," Fran said. "We'll make it through this. What we need is clean water and somewhere to stay overnight. I suggest we head out a bit, see if we can get lucky and find a stream, then, whether we can or not, we try and get an igloo or something cave-like going so that we will be able to sleep without being frozen."

The mink nodded slightly, and followed when Fran began to walk away. 'A place to sleep is my top priority,' he told himself.

The two trudged through the snow, Mink getting frustrated that he had to keep his head up in order for it to not get submerged in snow. The box weapon soon made a decision and leapt gracefully onto Fran's shoulder. Fran had the initial 'what the hell' moment, but regained his cool the moment he realized it was Mink.

"The prince too lazy to walk himself?" he chuckled.

"Shishishi~!" Mink answered cheerfully, nuzzling against Fran's cheek. "Tch. Smooth-talking little weasel aren't you?" the young illusionist asked. The mink frowned and fluffed up a bit upon being called a weasel, which made Fran laugh happily. "You look so much like senpai," he told the animal. It snorted, still upset about being called a weasel, and hopped up onto Fran's hat instead. "Sorry, Mink," he apologized, not breaking his stride. He then moved his hand up and lit his Storm ring once again, smiling when he felt Mink lapping the Storm flames. 'Best way to a box weapon's heart is through it's stomach,' he mused.

After walking a bit further, Fran noticed that it was starting to get dark. "We'll have to stop here," he told the mink. It hopped off of his hat, snarling in frustration when it made a large hole in the snow. It flipped back onto its stomach while it scrambled to get out of the hole. It shook itself in an almost self-concious manner before looking back at Fran.

"Shishi~?"

"I say we start rearranging snow," Fran told it. The mink shook its head in an obviously disapproving manner, and Fran could almost hear Bel saying, 'Silly Froggy.' "What?" he asked the box weapon. It seemed to roll its eyes at him before it walked back to the hole it had made earlier, and brushed its tail over it. The snow melted instantly, and the mink moved into the hole and started digging furiously.

"Graaaru!" it called to Fran. The young illusionist followed it, brushing the snow that it kicked at him out of the hole.

"Didn't know you could dig so quickly," he commented. The mink didn't give any sort of reply, just continued at his job. It soon reached ground, where it stopped its furious swipes and instead just brushed the snow aside, uncovering more earth. It then started to progress forward, not down. "Ne, I won't be able to fit in there!" Fran called down. The mink seemed to sigh in response, even hanging its head to emphasize its annoyance, before sweeping its tail around the small cave, melting more snow, and crawled back up the steep path in, stretching when it saw the thin sunlight. It moved back into the hole, this time using its tail to melt a wide enough space for Fran.

"Thanks," Fran said as he began to ease himself, and their food supply, in with Mink. He was very suprised at how deep the snow had been. The mink scratched at the walls of the barely-big-enough cave, and gave the area a bit more space. He then sat back as its flames began to die out, so Fran immediately held his ring to the mink and lit it. Mink gratefully took more of the flames, before yawning and stretching on the ground beneath him.

"Shishishi...," it murmured.

"You've worked pretty hard, go ahead and sleep," Fran told the mink, before lying down beside it and looking out the tunnel that lead them in. It was at a good angle so that it shouldn't get covered should it snow again. He began to pet the mink almost unconciously, and slowly felt himself drifting into sleep.

"Shishishi...," was the last thing he heard before he slipped into unconciousness.

Morning...

Fran's woke up slowly, and didn't open his eyes for a few moments, instead just nuzzled into what he was sure was Belphagor's hair. However, when he detected the not-so-princely scent of mink, he was quick to look at what was curled up into his chest. The previous day came flooding back to him in fragments of memory, and he sat up tiredly. The mink gave a cute, fanged yawn that reminded Fran painfully of the prince. It looked up at him and frowned. It was almost written in its expression that it was homesick, and so was Fran.

"Come on," he told the mink, after feeding it more flames to keep it out of its box. "We should see what it's like outside."

The mink nodded, and the two crawled through the narrow tunnel, both breathing out cheerfully when they saw the sunlight. Fran looked at the ground. 'It snowed again last night,' he mentally noted.

Mink began leaping around in the snow, throwing it up with his hind paws. (A/N: I hate saying 'it', so from now on, Mink is a he.)

Fran thought of Bel again. The prince, too, had loved to play in the snow, at least, until the snow began to freeze him. As he watched the mink prancing around in such a cheerful manner, he brought a hand over his chest.

'Bel-senpai...'

-End Chapter

Happy that Fran's not badly injured?  
Fran: I think YOU forgot that I have a broken wrist.

Me: You were crawling using just your good hand, and Mink did all the digging because he knew you had the broken wrist.  
Mink: Grrawr! (I am a PRINCE'S mink!)  
Me: I know, but Fran's broken wrist overrules your royalty.  
Mink: Grrrrr...  
Fran: Heh, sucks for you.  
Mink: -.-'  
Me: Review, 'cause I'll work faster.  
Hibari: You've been on the couch all day.  
Me: I took an hour break.  
Hibari: Whatever.  
Me: Again, Review.  
Hibari: Or be bitten to death.


	6. Chapter 6: We Were Too Late

A Royal Winter Chapter Six

XD Right from the beginning, I get reviews talking about how happy they are that Fran's not dead. As for Mink, I DID mention that Fran having Storm Flames contributed to the plot, yeah?  
Yes, no one else knows that Fran survived, but Fran left that arrow of books at the train, so the rescue team should know where he is, right? Fran: If you don't start writing, I'll attack you with Mink.  
Mink: Grrrrr Fran: Fine, I won't use Mink.  
Me: Heh, he doesn't like you, but he's being forced to work with you. Where have I seen that used before?  
Mink: '  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

8:30 AM

Mukuro was awoken when an official at the train station gently shook his shoulder. "Sir, we have the report from the rescue team."

"Oh, alright," the illusionist said, standing up and stretching. "What's the news?"

The man shook his head and handed Mukuro a copy of the report. "You should find out for yourself."

Mukuro turned to the report and began reading what they'd found.

'The train was on its side, windows were broken.  
Blood was everywhere. There was shattered glass scattered across the ground, and bodies everywhere.  
There were no survivors.'

Mukuro felt himself tremble slightly as he reread those four words countless times.

'There were no survivors.'

'no survivors.'

The illusionist took an intake of breath, and looked at the pictures of the scene. It was just as it described, of course, there were rescue team members picking up the bodies. Some of them were partly submerged in the snow from the previous night.

"So it's really true," Mukuro whispered, "Fran's gone."

Bel answered his phone the second it began to ring. "Mukuro?" he questioned.

(Yes.)

"Did you get the report?"

(Yes.)

"What happened?"

(... He's dead.)

Bel felt his heart stop. "Did... did anyone survive...?" he asked, sadness putting a quiver in his voice.

(No. No one.)

"... Did they find his... his... you know..."

(Body? Probably. I'm going to check over what they found now.)

"I'll report to Xanxus real quick, then I'll call you back."

(Okay.)

Even Xanxus bothered to answer his phone this time, and put it on speaker the second he knew it was Belphagor.

"Prince trash, what's the news?" he asked.

(... Fran's not going to be coming back.)

"He didn't survive the crash?"

(Nobody did.)

"Okay, thanks for the report. We'll send out for another illusionist."

(A-alright. Bye, bossu.)

"Later, prince trash."

Xanxus looked around the room. "We have an assignment to complete."

"Mou, and Fran was such a cutie," pouted Lussuria.

"So was Mammon, but the cute guys die faster, apparently," Levi growled.

"Oh dear! Does that mean Bel and I are next?" the gaylord shrieked.

"No, Luss, you aren't cute," Squalo muttered, before walking up to his boss. "Should we head out?"

"Yeah, give them a beating."

"We'll try."

9:00 AM

Fran sat back against a half-frozen tree with a sigh. "I say this is as far as we should go from our little cave for now," he told Mink.

"Grrrrrr," the mink had fluffed up and was staring at something past Fran.

"What?" Fran asked.

"Graaaru!" the box weapon snarled, leaping behind Fran. The young illusionist turned quickly, and saw the mink chasing a rabbit. He sighed and watched the chase, which ended the second Mink managed to leap far enough to catch the rabbit's hind leg. "Arrrru!" he seemed to say in triumph, starting to walk back with his catch.

"You're turning into a merciless killer," Fran chuckled, "but it should help in the long run. Did they not send out a rescue team? The jerks."

"Graru!" Mink huffed in agreement, before walking back towards their cave, where he'd be sure to store his kill.

"Hey, don't start eating that until we find some water," Fran called to the flame-powered animal.

"Arru!"

Fran stood and looked into the forest that stretched before them. Eventually, they'd have to turn directly left and head north, so they could possibly get themselves to Florrence. Mink pranced back over to Fran, waving its tail with evident happiness. Fran saw the snow melt as the mink's tail passed over it, and suddenly realized- 'melted snow is water!'

"Mink," he called, "use your tail, melt more snow, its enough to give us some sort-of clean water for now."

The mink did as ordered, and soon had a small puddle made from snow. "Raru~!" he purred, crouching down to lap at the puddle. Fran smiled and used his good hand to scoop up some of the water.

After satisfying their thirst, the two felt it was about time to head out again. "If they didn't send out a rescue team, we're going to have to make it back ourselves. We'll turn North, and start heading- not close to the tracks, but still along them. Let's head back to our cave real quick and get our food supply."

The mink nodded in agreement, and they headed back to their makeshift burrow.

Fran pushed the bag of food that they'd gotten out of the tunnel, and sat back, before looking at his broken wrist. 'I'll have to do something for this,' he silently told himself. Mink moved out of the cave and looked up at Fran. He saw the look in Fran's eyes, that of concern, and immediately bolted off in the direction of the train wreck. Fran watched, figuring that the mink was going to go steal something off of a corpse, but the mink soon came back, looking paniced.

"Arrru! Graaaru!" he protested, bouncing all over the place, before speeding back in the direction of the train wreck. Fran got up and followed.

"Oh no," Fran breathed when he saw the place. There was hardly anything. The train was there but no bodies, no books. 'It snowed last night,' he remembered, 'they were buried by snow.'

"Mink," he said, "we'll have to make it through this on our own." The mink gave a solmn nod, and quietly followed Fran back to their cave. The two were going to work hard to get back. Fran froze suddenly. 'Back where?' he wondered. 'I could go back to senpai, the train was pretty much just halfway through the ride.'

"Grraru?" Mink questioned, looking back up at Fran.

"Should we head back to the Varia base, or go looking for Master?" Fran asked him. The mink cheshire grinned, and gave its high-pitched 'ushishi', which confirmed Fran's suspiscions. The mink would rather be back with Bel. "Alright. We'll look for senpai instead."

The mink was overjoyed at this idea, and Fran, honestly, was too. He wanted nothing more than to be back with the prince.

Mukuro looked over the area again. No. He wasn't there. Fran wasn't there!

"What does this mean?" the illusionist wondered aloud. His cell phone rang, and he was quick to answer. "Belphagor?"

(Y-yes, it's the prince. Did you find him...?)

"No. They... they didn't bring Fran's body back."

(What...?)

"There's not a hint of teal as far as the eye can see- Fran's not here!" Mukuro repeated.

(Then... what happened to him?)

"There's several possibilities, but I believe the most likely one is that Fran is alive, and wandering through that forest."

"However, if he is, he'll die soon anyway," Mukuro pointed out. "Fran's not equipped to hang around in that place. Is Xanxus looking for another illusionist...?"

(... Yes...)

"Let him. Both of us need to forget about Fran. BOTH of us, Prince the Ripper."

(There's nothing we can do about this...?)

"No. If we were to go barging in there too, we would just be wasting our own lives. We have to let go of it."

(... What are you going to do about the assignment?)

"I'll take care of that myself," Mukuro said decisively. "It'll be difficult, but I refuse to let this incident weaken me."

(Aren't you upset about this?)

"Of course. But I won't let it control me. You should keep this behind you as well."

(... I loved him.)

"I know, Prince the Ripper, but you'll have to forget about him. It's Varia quality, right?"

(... Okay, so Varia quality. That's one thing I still have.)

"That's the spirit. Come on, you can get through this, you're a prince, aren't you?"

(Y-yes!)

"Well, I'm sure a prince such as yourself can handle it."

(I'm sure I can...!)

"Mm hm. Good. I'll have to leave you at that, however, I want to let you be at that. I have to complete my assignment."

(Alright. The prince will remember... he has to forget Froggy.)

"Yes, just remember that. Goodbye, Prince the Ripper."

(Bye.)

Mukuro hung up, and frowned. 'Who am I kidding? I can't kill in this state. I just hope HE gets through this...'

-End Chapter

Alright, complications, complications... muahaha...  
Fran: Don't start laughing like that, you already have a 'ushishi'ing problem.  
Me: Senpai's fault.  
Bel: :'(  
Me: I know, I know, don't worry, it'll have a happy ending, I've told you this before, right?  
Bel: I canNOT forget Froggy.  
Mukuro: :'(  
Me: Now, Mukuro, you have Hibari. Cheer up.  
Hibari: Yeah.  
Mukuro: ... X(  
Me: -.- Well, I've gone and made everybody all sad-  
Mammon: *is SO not sad* :)  
Me: Okay, not everybody.  
Bel and Fran: *run away from Mammon*  
Me: ._. Okays, so PLEASE REVIEW~!  
Hibari: Or be bitten-  
Me: You really don't need to add that.  
Hibari *glare*


	7. Chapter 7: Dead and Replaced

A Royal Winter Chapter Seven

Hey, who wants me to go for eighteen chapters again? I could try for twenty six too. And If I'm in a really good mood, I good try for fifty-nine! I'm kidding. But I would like chapter number suggestions- preferably under thirty, and possibly character numbers.  
Anywho~, did you all hate Mukuro at the end of the last chapter? Don't worry, he was really trying to help Bel. Bummer he doesn't know Fran's situation.  
Writing begins now~!  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

12:45 PM, a week later.

"... Uhm... Belphagor-sama? Are you alright...?" asked the girl, waving her hand over the prince's face. Bel shook his head.

"It's fine. Chrome right?"

"Hai. I will be Fran's replacement."

"... You're also Mukuro Rokudo's 'spare body', right?"

"Yes. When Mukuro-sama wishes to leave Vendicere for a moment, he will switch places using the realm of 'Deva'," Chrome explained.

"Okay, so as of now, I suppose the Vongola and Varia are sort of sharing the same Mist Guardian here...?" he asked.

"Mukuro-sama is the Vongola's true Guardian. However, I've been trained, and I'm prepared to be the Varia's Mist Guardian, at least until you find someone better suited for the job," the girl informed him.

"Alright then," Bel said, before realizing that there was something VERY wrong here. "Are we supposed to be partners then, seeing as you're the Mist Guardian?"

"I believe so."

Bel felt a deep blush spread across his face. 'Dammit... and partners... share rooms...'

* * *

Mink gently nudged the unmoving body with his nose, looking devastated.

* * *

The prince sat down on the couch and sighed heavily. 'I'm never going to get used to this... She's a girl, I don't talk to girls- unless you count Lussuria.'

He rubbed his forehead with frustration. 'Really... It's like I need to raise my princeliness a level.'

Chrome walked over and looked at Bel, "Are you okay, Belphagor-sama? You've seemed a bit suprised since you realized we would be partners."

'I can't sleep in the same room with her, it'll feel so wierd... I mean... Froggy...'

"B-belphagor-sama!" Chrome suddenly said in a high tone that snapped Bel out of his daze. He looked at his arm.

'When did I...?'

A large, bleeding gash was there, and a knife in his hand.

'I'd rather you stab me than yourself, senpai.'

'Froggy...'

* * *

It didn't move, didn't breath.

* * *

Bel looked like he'd seen a ghost, not even reacting when Chrome bandaged the wound. 'I need Fran back,' was all he could think.

* * *

It just lied there.

* * *

'Fran...'

* * *

It was dead.

* * *

-End Chapter

Supershort chapter alerrrrt~! Glad I finally used the real page dividers...?  
Fran: What the hell, you're not allowed to kill me! That's against the rules, this is still before TYL! You CANNOT kill your main character!  
Me: Whoops.  
Fran: Yeah, whoops, you killed me!  
Me: :P Bel: Aww, why do I have to work with a girl?  
Me: Deal with it.  
Hibari: Now review or be bitten to death!  
Me: Please, Hibari, that's my job.  
Hibari: *glare*  
Me: Okay, fine, you can ask people to review.  
Hibari. ^^


	8. Chapter 8: Not When Mink's Around

A Royal Winter Chapter eight

Chapter eight already?  
Fran: You've been writing ridiculously short chapters.  
Me: Well let's make this one long then, shall we?  
Fran: How do you plan to do that when I'm dead?  
Me: *evil laughter*  
Fran: O.O

* * *

3:45 PM, same day where I left off.

He bent over and picked up the mink with his good hand. "Come on, you shouldn't even be thinking about romance right now, smooth-talking weasel-san." The mink protested to his tempory master with a string of growls. "Really, I don't think a box weapon mink and a real mink make a good pairing anyway." The mink seemed to imitate Fran's famous disguising the word 'hypocrite' in a cough, which rather got on the young illusionist's nerves. "Hey, I'm totally good for Bel-senpai, he decided so himself."

"Graru."

"You were stronger than it anyway, see, they died of the cold. Notice I say 'it', because I'm not sure which gender you like, seeing as you're a mink, but then again, you're BEL-SENPAI'S mink," Fran said, letting the box weapon crawl up onto his hat. Mink lied down in a showing-off sort of pose, as though mimicing Bel now.

"Shishishi~!" he giggled.

"Yeah, whatever," mumbled Fran, wincing when he accidentally moved his broken wrist again. "I really need to get something to hold this in place."  
He felt Mink hop off of his hat and onto a fairly straight, small tree branch, and turned around just in time to see him burn the base of the branch so that it would fall down.

"Shishi~!" he laughed.

"Good Mink," Fran praised, "though I'll also need... hm... that much I can do." Fran cast an illusion of rope, and bound the small tree limb to his broken wrist. "Hm... that should work," he decided. He kneeled down to Mink's level and fed him a few more Deathperation flames, but noticed that said flames were a bit smaller than normal. 'My energy must be starting to wear thin,' he noted.

"Hey, let's camp out here," he told Mink. The box weapon stretched, nodded, and began to dig into the snow. "I'm going to head over to the train tracks, just to see how much progress we've made- don't get eaten," Fran said, before walking to where the train tracks should be. He got up to where the tracks were, but after a few steps, the snow beneath him began to creak, and he jumped back just as a thin layer of ice that had been supporting the snow caved into a river that had been underneath him. Fran felt his heart hammering in his chest with shock, and took a few more steps away. "What's with that...?" he wondered.

He started to head back, not even looking to see their distance, when a tree branch abruptly gave way and landed right before him. He sprinted around it, totally confused as to why nature seemed to be targeting him, and just barely made it back to Mink. He sat down by the hole to their next burrow, and looked around. 'What's with this sense of foreboding?'

"Damn... I was so close on both accounts," he growled, sitting on a tree branch.

* * *

"As long as he has Mink, I can't touch him. What's with that anyway? Is it just because Mink belongs to Bel...?"

* * *

Varia hq, 4:00 PM

Bel looked across the room at Chrome. 'Fran would've never thought about casting the illusion of another bed,' he wondered, 'It's as though she's used to this.'

RING-RING-

"Hello?" Bel answered.

(Hey, Prince the Ripper, just checking in.)

"Mukuro?" questioned Bel.

(Yeah. Is Chrome there too?)

"Yes..."

(You sound uncertain, are you not fond of her?)

"I just have yet to open up to the idea of a female partner, Mukuro."

(As expected. Are you over HIM yet?)

"No... I really can't stop thinking about him."

(Also predictable, you WERE lovers after all.)

"Can we stop talking about Froggy? Everything I hear that has to do with him... just... breaks the prince's heart."

(Sorry, Belphagor.)

"... Do you think... he might still be alive...?"

(Belphagor, it's been over a week now. As far as we know, he has no food, no supplies- he's gone.)

"*sigh* ... I won't be able to forget..."

(You will eventually. Is the possibility of getting together with Levi still open?)

"It never was open, Mukuro, Levi is not even CLOSE to my type, in fact, I'd stab you for suggesting it if you were here."

(Kufufufu~, Sorry.)

"Look, the prince has to go, Xanxus is calling."

(Hai, farewell.)

"Bye."

Bel hung up on the illusionist with that. Xanxus wasn't even calling, the prince was just done with hearing about his likely dead kouhai.

* * *

Fran leaned back against the smooth snow wall and sighed. 'Something's... wrong...,' he thought.

Mink yawned widely and crawled up the tunnel, poking his head outside. He looked around, crossing his front legs comfortably and rested his head on them. "You've improved on your cave building," Fran complimented. The mink slid himself back down and looked up at Fran. The look was clear on his face- I wanna go home.

Fran pulled the mink into his lap. "Everything's going to be alright, Mink, we'll be back with Bel-senpai soon."

"Shishi...," the mink replied before curling up on Fran's chest.

"Sleep well," the young illusionist sighed as he eased himself onto the ground.

* * *

Morning...

An eletric wave of pain woke Fran with a start, and he was shocked to see Mink biting his bad wrist. "What the hell, Mink?" Fran said, pushing the box weapon away from him.

"Sorry, only way I figured I could wake you up," said the mink, suddenly fading out to mist, and revealing a phantom that Fran knew too well.

"Oh my god," breathed Fran, "Mammon!"

"Oh? You haven't forgotten me, cute little Fran?" laughed Mammon, crawling a bit closer to him. "Well, why don't we have a talk, catch up, you know?"

Fran backed up just as Mammon crawled an inch closer. "What is there to catch up about? You're dead, and I'm the leftovers of a train wreck," Fran said, now back to the wall. "And where's Mink, anyway?"

"Oh, returned to his box, ran out of flames," Mammon said, deciding that Fran was allowed personal space so long as the entrance was guarded.

"Alright, so how long have you been here?" Fran asked.

"Well~, don't call me a stalker, but I've been watching you since you left on the train. What a terrible accident that it crashed~."

"Huh. What do you want with me? You should already know that Bel-senpai loves me," Fran said.

"Oh, yes, I know. But hey, I love Bel too here, we are of mutual intrests."

"Sure," Fran growled, "You nearly wrecked our relationship, Mammon, don't think I can trust you again."

Mammon laughed in a childish manner, "Of course you can, Fran, because I'M your key out of here~!"

Fran raised a brow. "Is that so? I've been doing rather well lately, count out the illusions you've cast."

Mammon's laughter died down into giggles, "Ah, so you noticed? As expected of an apprentice of Mukuro. Speaking of, you know, they think you're dead. They even have a replacement for you!"

Fran felt a surge of anger. "Replacement? Who?"

"Chrome, of course. The darling, she doesn't even know Bel's gay."

Fran tried to regain his composure and focus any anger towards the deceased Arcobaleno before him. "Mammon, you have to move on, Bel-senpai doesn't love you anymore."

Mammon sighed with defeat, though he still smiled, "I know. But, you see, emotions are intense. Especially jealousy, dear Fran. Now jealousy, is something I have here. It's also something that takes a great amount of work to be rid of. And that's why, I need to dispose of you."

With that, the phantom burst upward, through the roof of the burrow, causing the snow to cave in. Fran's eyes widened with a short-lived shock, and the snow piled on top of him.

* * *

Noon...

Fran let the mink take as many of his Deathperation flames as it wanted out of sheer gratefulness. 'He won't approach... when Mink's out,' the kouhai had realized. 'But anyway, he's going to be a problem. I can't believe he's still so obsessed with Bel-senpai...'

Mink sat back with a cheshire grin, obviously not regretting that he helped Fran get out of all the snow, even though it meant getting both of them soaked. Good thing it was actually sunny on this particular day. "Shishishi~!" he giggled, leaping up onto Fran's hat once more.

Fran smiled and began walking again, carrying the, now-rather light, bag of food in his good hand. It was going to be a while longer, but they'd get back to Bel eventually, Fran knew.

-End Chapter

Happy? Yeah, the thing that died in the last chapter was a mink! ^w^  
Fran: I cannot believe you! *hits*  
Me: Sorry~! I like pissing off the readers.  
Hibari: That you do.  
Me: X)  
Bel: I don't like this.  
Me: Sorry.  
Mammon: Why doesn't he die?  
Me: 'cause I'm not allowed to do that.  
Mammon: :(  
Mukuro: Hey, when does he get back?  
Me: Idk.  
Hibari: She can't give everything away, Rokudo.  
Me: No really, I don't know.  
Hibari: Oh... ... Okay then. REVIEW OR BE BITTEN TO DEATH!  
Me: *sigh*


	9. Chapter 9: Forgiven

A Royal Winter Chapter Nine.

Chapter nine? Maybe eighteen will be my limit once again. -.- I never know...  
Fran: Start writing before Mink chews my hand off.  
Me: Uhm... alright!  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2:45 PM day after I left off.

Fran walked faster. 'Could it be...?' Mink tested the air and seemed to purr. That hissing sound just ahead... might just be...

'Yes! We'll be alright!'

As the young illusionist approached the unfrozen water, supplied by a roaring waterfall, he felt hope burn passionately in his chest. "We're gonna make it through this, Mink," he told his senpai's box weapon.

"Rarru~!" the mink said in a cheerful voice, hopping off of Fran's hat and prancing up to the water giddily. Fran followed at a slower pace, and paused at the water.

"Hey, Mink, are there any fish in there...?" he asked. Mink's reply was an excited leap into the river, which greatly startled Fran. "Hey! Don't jump in there, it's got to be freezing! ... Do you hate me THAT much?"

Mink then scrambled back onto the snowy land, a fish squirming in his mouth. Fran watched as the mink pranced, head held high, back to him, and dropped the fish at the teal-haired guardian's feet. He then shook himself off, fluffing his fur, and looked back up at Fran, waving his tail happily. Fran kneeled down and stroked the mink several times with his good hand. "Good Mink," he murmured.

"Graru."

He fed the box weapon more Deathperation flames, and let the mink, when he was finished, dive back into the river. 'I wouldn't have gotten very far if it wasn't for Mink,' Fran thought as he watched the somewhat calm waters ripple from the crashing waterfall several meters away.

'I wouldn't have gotten Mink if it wasn't for Bel-senpai.'

'Really... it's because of Bel that I'm still alive.'

'... I need to get home.'

Mink suddenly hurled himself back onto the sleet-coated ground, practically throwing the next fish at Fran. Said fish was still alive, and flopped aimlessly around when it became submerged in snow. Fran gave a dry chuckle, and picked up the fish by its tail until it stopped wriggling. "Mink!" he called as the box weapon surfaced yet again, one more fish in his mouth.

The mink bounced up to him and set the thrashing fish on the ground before looking questioninly at Fran. "It's okay," said Fran, "This is enough for now." He then sat back and looked at his broken wrist. "No matter what, Mink, we'll make it through this," he soothed the sleek, white animal.

"Rarru~!"

Fran then looked over at the old tree beside the river, and smirked when he saw the ghost on top of the branch. "Hey, I'm willing to forgive you," Fran called to him. "You're lost here too."

Mammon looked away from him. "I don't need help. I happen to have a teleporting ability here."

"That's only if you know the exact way to where you want to go, but you're just too lazy to walk the way. You're lost too, whether you realize it yourself or not," Fran reasoned with the phantom. Mammon remained silent after that, and Fran decided against trying to argue further. He knew that the dead Arcobaleno was really just waiting for Mink to run out of energy again so he could attack.

While Fran looked away, Mammon looked back at him. 'This brat is smart,' he thought bitterly. 'How does he know about teleportion anyway?'

'... Maybe... I should really let things go.'

'... No... It's... it's impossible. I'm already too far into this, I can't switch sides now.'

'But... would Belphagor prefer that...?'

* * *

Meanwhile, the prince was still trying to wake himself up. 'There's no such thing as Froggy in my life anymore.'

'Froggy's not going to come back, so... I can't let myself hope.'

"Bel-sama?"

The prince almost fell over upon hearing the high voice of Chrome. He looked at her. "Y-yeah?"

"Sorry, it's just... you're always spacing out... Is something bothering you?" she asked.

"No...," Bel murmured, "it's nothing."

'Nothing... at all...'

* * *

"Come on, now, Kyouya, I won't be gone forever," Mukuro protested, trying to get himself out of the prefect's vice-like grip.

"No," Hibari all but whimpered, "not yet... stay longer..."

Mukuro sighed. "I can't do anything about it, Kyouya, the Venicere guards were very nice just to let me stay out of there for this long, and I can always use real illusions to reach you!"

"It's not the same!" Hibari complained, "I want YOU here! The REAL you!"

Mukuro gave another heavy sigh before hugging the other tightly. "I don't want to leave you, Kyouya, I really don't. But I can't do anything about it."

"I'll talk to Tsunayoshi!" the ravenette suggested, "I'll convince him to keep them away for a year, at least!"

Mukuro shook his head, a sad smile on his face. "Kyouya, it breaks my heart to see you so upset, but I'm afraid there's truly nothing about it we can do. And didn't you try to get together a plan to get me out? You were working with Chikusa, Ken and... oh..." The illusionist cut himself off, frowning deeply.

"... Mukuro...," whispered Hibari as he caught the look of grief in the taller man's eyes.

* * *

Xanxus took the report from Squalo and looked it over. "There's a lot of illusionists on their side, hm?" the boss commented, looking up at the Rain Guardian. Squalo gave a silent nod- he'd been quiet for quite a while now.

"Levi took out most of them with no hesitation; there's dedication if ever I've seen it. Lussuria was looking the other way for more than half the battle, and I did... well... the best I could," Xanxus stood for once in his life, and walked up to the shark, before carefully brushing a stray strand of silver out of his face.

"It's okay," the boss said in the softest voice he could possibly manage. "If he were really worthy of the Varia, I'm sure he would have survived."

Squalo looked down. "I know," he whispered in his naturally gruff voice, "It just fels like the humor has gone from our lives. That brat was... one of the best guardians we've had. He even managed to give Bel a heart. That's something even Mammon couldn't accomplish."

Flashback...

"Ne, Bel," murmured Mammon, tugging on the prince's sleeve. "You're done. Let's go."

Bel looked away from the torn body and glared at the illusionist. "Don't order the prince," he commanded. Mammon sighed heavily.

"Bel, please... You don't need to do anymore," the Arcobaleno insisted. "And you don't want Xanxus to get angry with you."

The prince made a short growling noise before stabbing a knife into the Mist guardian's hat. "I said, DON'T ORDER THE PRINCE."

Mammon fell silent. He knew he couldn't convince the spoiled blonde otherwise.

End Flashback

"He knew how important he was to Bel, and yet he went and got himself killed," the silver-haired swordsmen growled, clenching his teeth in frustration.

"Well, there's nothing to be done about the matter," Xanxus muttered, "get back to the assignment, the sooner it's over, the less chance of Bel burning down our headquarters.

"... Alright," the shark breathed, "We'll get to planning our next move." He then turned and began walking away in silence.

"Shark trash," Xanxus called as the other reached the door. Squalo obediently stopped, but didn't look at the Sky-flamed man, instead just waited for him to speak. "You're much cuter when you keep your mouth shut. Just thought you should know."

"... Thanks boss," Squalo murmured as he left the room. Xanxus gave a heavy sigh when his Rain Guardian had taken his leave. 'That brat has had more of an impact on them then I thought he would,' he thought as he settled back into his throne-like chair.

* * *

Fran tested the water with a finger, and shivered. "Mink, how can you possibly stand this?" he asked. The box animal seemed to shrug, picking a fish bone clean. 'Box weapons probably shouldn't eat actual food, should they?' Fran wondered as he watched the creature. He glanced over at the spirit that watched over him in a not-very-protective manner, and smiled.

"Ne, do ghosts eat fish?" he asked, holding up the last of Mink's catches. Mammon seemed to roll his eyes.

"I hope that's your alternitive for asking whether I can eat at all, for it would be quite stupid if I could not eat fish, but could eat other foods."

Fran shrugged. "Well?"

"Of course I can eat," snapped Mammon, "I can touch things, I have a form!"

Fran put his hands up in an indigant gesture and said defensively, "Well gosh, I just wanted to offer you a fish."

"I don't like sushi," Mammon growled.

"Liar!" Fran said, pointing accusingly at the ghost, "Bel once told me he and you used to visit sushi places every chance you'd get."

Mammon crossed his arms and glared at the younger boy. "Alright, now unless you want me to throw something, you ought to shut up."

"Okay," Fran agreed, before picking up the topic of their heated discussion and tossing it towards Mammon. "Don't let it get cold," he joked before looking back at the river. The deceased illusionist tried to disguise a chuckle as a 'huh' before he picked up the fish and held it before him.

'It's true... Bel always loved trying normal things that he hadn't gotten the chance to experience in his own childhood, and sushi was a big favorite of his,' the Arcobaleno recalled as his indigo eyes began to water slightly. He wiped the unwanted tears away and walked a distance further from Fran. 'That kid's lucky... just because Bel likes him so much.'

Fran wasn't aware of the other illusionist's new look on him, but wouldn't have understood anyway. He didn't appreciate the prince quite as much as Mammon yet, because Mammon had actually lost the prince.

Flashback...

"Watch out, hey!" shouted Colonello, stepping bravely in front of his fellow Arcobaleno.

"C-colonello!" cried Mammon as the blast hit his comrade square on the chest. Everything glowed a bright white for a moment, before the light calmed, revealing Colonello to be defeated. One of the murderers teammates began giggling wildly, in a manner that surpassed Belphagor and even Lussuria in creepiness.

"Tsk tsk, he defended you for no real reason, what a waste of a life!" he laughed, his star-decorated eyes twinkling more than normal with the excitement of a kill.

Mammon looked around him. He was surrounded. There was no hope. He wouldn't live. 'I don't want to be tortured,' he thought to himself, 'I want it over fast.' He looked to the knife in his hand.

The knife that Bel had claimed would bring good luck.

The knife that could kill him quickly.

As the enemies began to close in, Mammon held the knife out, placed the point at an artery on his throat, and sliced his own neck.

The knife brought him a quick, painless end, which he did consider luck enough.

End Flashback

'It's my own fault that I can't have Bel,' the spirit thought, brushing two fingers over the eternal scar on his throat. 'Fran didn't give up, but I did.'

'Do I... not deserve Bel?'

* * *

In the middle of the night, when Mink had run out of flames and returned to his box, Mammon silently crawled into the cave that the box weapon had constructed for Fran. He watched the boy sleep for a few seconds, considering what to do. The teal-haired mist guardian was peacefully curled up in a ball, but his teeth chattered slightly with the cold from the ice walls around him.

After a few more moments, Mammon undid the ropes to the branch that held Fran's wrist in place, moved that away, and cast an illusion of an actual cast on the wrist. He turned to leave then, but stopped and bit his lip. 'Just one more thing should be fine,' he thought to himself before taking off his own cloak and lying it over the boy. He then nodded to himself and began towards the tunnel out again, but then caught sight of the bag of food that had grown very small. He gave a voiceless groan and crawled out of the cave before casting an illusion of a fishing rod.

'I suppose I'll be up late tonight.'

* * *

Fran woke up tiredly and stretched before pulling the blanket closer to himself. He then caught the scent on it, that which did NOT belong to Belphagor, and sat up abruptly. He knew whose cloak it was from a single glance, and felt an odd sense of danger overwhelm him. He brought Mink out of his box, and suddenly noticed the cast on his left wrist.

'What...?' he wondered. He folded the cloak and put it under his arm before crawling gingerly out of his cave, followed closely by Belphagor's box weapon. When he came out, he saw a pile of fish beside the entrance to his cave, and raised a brow. 'What's with all this...?' he thought tensely.

"Hey, toss the cloak over here," called an all too familiar voice.

Fran looked and saw Mammon standing just a few feet away. He obediently tossed the spirit his cloak, and it was immediately put on again. "Did you do all this?" Fran asked.

"Maybe," Mammon replied, before taking a couple steps over. "You know what, I've done some thinking."

"Oh no," Fran muttered sarcastically.

"Oh yes. And I learned that I've got to let Bel go."

Fran's teal eyes opened wide with suprise. "What...?"

"Mmhm. Now listen, brat, you're very lucky. I could have killed you in your sleep- I still kind of regret not doing so. But listen, I, for once in my life, took pity on someone. I'm going to help you to the best of my ability, but you have to chip in too here, I'm not going to be catching you mounds of fish on a daily basis," Mammon told him. Fran nodded, though he was hardly following the former Arcobaleno's rapid speech. "And another thing, you aren't going to get ANYWHERE on foot. I'm pretty sure you've gotten... hmm... twelve out of approximately fifty kilometers of the way back to Bel. Oh, and if I DO happen to assist you, you're going to have to let me have a bit of involvement in Bel's life." Fran looked suspiscious at the other's requirement, so the deceased illusionist continued again.

"I just want to see him. I don't need to have a relationship with him... after all... it was me who gave up." The teal-haired guardian pondered his options for a while. 'I've never wanted to hate this guy, I really just thought he was overly obsessed with senpai this whole time... but...

Maybe...

I could join with him to get back.'

Fran looked up at the phantom, locked their gazes together, and nodded.

-End Chapter

YEAH! I FINALLY UPDATED! Oh, by the way, Mammon is his adult form in the sequel so that he looks more normal! You might want to know that~!  
Fran: *Yaaaaaaaaawn* Why are you making me forgive him?  
Me: 'Cause I'm not so sure I want all the fans to be turned against my second favorite Arcobaleno.  
Fran: Who's your favorite Arcobaleno of all? I'll assume it's Reborn, he's always the one with the fans...  
Me: Nope.  
Fran: Hm? Then who?  
Me: *light blush* Fon.  
Fran: ._. Fon...? Why's that?  
Me: *glances at Hibari* They have the same voice actor and identical faces, doesn't it make sense for me to like him?  
Fran: Ah, yes, for some reason, you obsess over Hibari.  
Me: Okay, okay, enough of giving away stuff about me.  
Hibari: REVIEW OR I WILL BITE!  
Me: ... That sounded... odd... you changed it...?  
Hibari: Hn. I've got to switch things around a bit.  
Me: Fans probably wouldn't mind having you bite them.  
Hibari: *frustrated face*  
Me: It's alright. He means to say something along the lines of REVIEW OR BE-  
Hibari: BITTEN TO DEATH! ... I had to stop you from saying it.  
Me: That's alright.


	10. Chapter 10: Comfortable

A Royal Winter Chapter Ten

Sheesh... I should work on 'Viper or Mammon?' more often, I'm so behind in that one.  
- But I'm addicted to my own story!  
I'm thinking of doing a trilogy after this. Like?  
Anyway, Squ-chan's birthday is next week, I'm pretty sure, so I'll do a XS fanfic for him, probably. X) *checks planner* Yeah, that's on the thirteenth.  
HEY!  
Did anyone see Lussu-neechan in ending fifteen. (i think it was fifteen at least) He was kind of scary...  
ALRIGHT! Writing begins...  
ready...  
set...  
Fran: WRITE!  
Me: Hai~!  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A week later...

"Fran, come on, you aren't that weak!"

"I'm trying!"

"I'm dead, I can't do much, you have to PUSH!"

"Again, I'm doing the best I can!"

"Well, push harder than the best you can!"

"Jerk!"

"Don't care!"

"Ah, it's going!"

"Get in! Hurry!"

Fran barely made it into the small boat, closely followed by Mammon. The two sighed with relief as the small craft began to make way down the river. Fran looked up at the phantom. "Thanks," he said gratefully, "No way I could've done that on my own."

"Probably not," agreed Mammon. "How's your wrist feeling?"

"It's healing," Fran said, "It should be back to normal in a couple more weeks maybe..."

"Alright. Can you cast a flame yet?"

Fran looked at the rings on his hands and pictured a flame. Nothing. "Nope," Fran sighed, lowering his hand.

"Man, you must be really low on energy then...," the older illusionist breathed, "It's a bummer too, I rather liked to see Mink hopping around."

"Yeah, he was just all over the place. Much like his master."

"He sure was," agreed Mammon, leaning on the back of the boat. "But it can't be helped if you aren't getting enough rest. In fact, why don't you take a nap? I can manage to control this thing for a bit."

"Thanks," Fran said before lying on his side, tucking his knees close to his chest due to the narrow space their craft had provided.

Mammon watched as the younger boy drifted into sleep, and frowned slightly. 'He's in pretty bad shape. I can't even tell if that's leftover fish on his chin or if he's growing a beard!' he thought to himself. After a pause, he thought, 'No, it's probably fish. He's a very messy eater for someone his age.'

The former Mist guardian noticed the wooden craft straying a bit too close to the snowy banks and maneuvered it a bit to the right so that it was in the dead center of the river again. 'This might not last the whole way, but it should get us pretty far,' he told himself, before squinting off to his right. Sure enough, he could see the train tracks in the distance. 'If we sink halfway through we'll have about nineteen kilometers left. Hn... Fran made it about twelve in the short time he was out here, we should be able to manage. However...'

The Arcobaleno looked at the bag of fish that they had. It would definently weigh them down a bit. 'Well... as we travel, we'll eat, it'll get lighter. I suppose I shouldn't criticize the fish when I myself am pretty heavy for a phantom. When was the last time I stepped on a scale...? Wait, does this matter? I don't need to watch my weight- I'm dead!'

He shook it off and looked back at Fran. The teal-haired Mist guardian was already fast asleep. 'Has he been up at night without me knowing?' Mammon wondered, 'he fell asleep so easily.'

'Could it be because no one's there next to him? Even though he didn't have Bel before he got so exhausted, he did have Mink whenever he fell asleep. Perhaps he's really lonely out here? I mean, of course I haven't slept beside him, that would be too much for me- and probably him too- to handle. But still, I wonder if he's missing Bel?'

The dead Arcobaleno looked out at the woods. 'Hey, it would be nice if spring came sometime. How long is winter again? Oh, I don't care. I'm just tired of all this white. Reminds me of those Millefiore and the Gesso family- or White spell, as they are now- uniforms.'

Mammon thought back to his life, to how much fun it used to go on assignments with Bel- so long as the prince didn't go all 'Prince the Ripper' and rip everything in sight to shreds.

Bel had been very nonchalant when he was younger, didn't care about anyone, anything, just wanted to have fun. Whoops, shouldn't have worded it that way. The point was that Mammon had enjoyed his time with Bel greatly. And he was sure Bel liked it too.

"S...npa...," Fran murmured in his sleep. Mammon sighed and gently patted the kouhai's shoulder.

"You'll be home soon, Fran."

* * *

His blue eye slowly opened, and he was disappointed to find that he was still inside the Vendicere water tank. 'It hasn't even been that long, and yet, I'm soooo bored,' he thought bitterly. He soon, however, came up with a plan.

'So Byakuran's messing with us? I really would like to try messing with him.'

And so began the possessing of Leonardo Lippi.

(A/N: We're a bit into NYL now!)  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Fran," said Mammon, gently shaking the smaller boy.

"Nnn... five more minutes... and turn on the heater... it's cold..."

"Fran!" Mammon repeated, now pinching the Mist guardian's cheek. Fran woke up slowly, looking rather irritated right from the beginning. He glared at the older phantom that had woken him.

"I was dreaming about senpai," he protested.

"Sorry, just thought I should tell you we were going to stop here and get something together before it's nighttime," the ghost told him.

"Meh," Fran muttered.

"Don't 'meh' me, get up!" Mammon complained, before forcing the smaller boy into a sitting position. "... Stupid frog," he growled.

"Stupid dead-guy," Fran retorted, before assisting the Arcobaleno in tethering the boat to a low tree branch with the same illusionary rope Fran had initially used for his cast. After a while, they'd tied up the boat and were working together to try and get a hole dug.

"Ugh, Mink is so much better at this," Mammon protested, scraping snow away from what was currently just a dent. Fran tried his best, using his good hand to push more snow out.

"Can't you create an illusionary shovel like you did yesterday?" the young illusionist asked.

"I don't have limitless energy," Mammon pointed out, "I'm weaker than yesterday."

"Well then, rest for a while, I feel a bit energized, let me handle it for a while," Fran suggested, a warm smile on his face despite the cold. Mammon considered for a bit.

"Alright. But wake me up the second you need help," he said, before walking a couple few feet away and lying his cloak on the ground before curling up on top of it.

"Alright," Fran agreed. He watched the older illusionist's expression slowly soften as he drifted into sleep, and soon returned to trying to dig out their next cave. He clawed fistfuls of snow away at a time with his good hand, knowing perfectly well that any animal could dig much faster than this.

CRUNCH. CRUNCH. CRUNCH.

Fran felt a shiver go up his spine when he heard the footsteps, and looked across the river. He was stunned to see a fully-grown bear on the other side, looking at him with cold, soulless, black eyes. He gulped as the bear got closer to the river's edge and held his breath. It stopped at the water and crouched down, then began to drink the water calmly, as though it could care less about other beings. After it had had its drink, it looked back up at Fran as though silently saying 'What a wierdo' before lumbering back into the forest behind it. Fran sighed with relief and got back to digging.

A while later, Fran noticed the light starting to change, and leaned over to Mammon. "Hey," he said, poking the other's cheek in a not-so-gentle manner. Mammon whined in complaint and tried to bat the younger boy away.

"Six more hours...," he growled.

"Nope. I got up when you woke me, so you should get up when I wake you up."

"Nnng, damned Belphagor logic being used against me," the illusionist mumbled. "I'm pretty sure senpai would be more like 'I'm a prince, and I say get up, so since I'm a prince, and you are not, you shall get up,' something like that," Fran said, poking the phantom once more.

Mammon sat up and tiredly rubbed his indigo eyes before glaring at Fran. "I was dreaming about Belphagor!"

"So was I!" countered Fran, before calming, "Alright, the sun's setting, we need to get moving on this cave." The former Arcobaleno instantly put his cloak back on and cast an illusionary shovel. "Thank you," Fran breathed as he stepped over to the foot-deep hole and began to shovel snow out of the way.

"Anything happen while I was gone- uhm... I mean, asleep?" Mammon asked.

"I saw a bear," Fran deadpanned.

"Hm? And it didn't try to eat you?"

"Nope. It just stared at me- like this." To prove his point, Fran made his usual expression, but had his eyes widened into a stare, and began to just look creepily at the phantom. Mammon soon realized what he was doing and looked back at him. He winced and whacked the kouhai's hat with his illusionary shovel.

"Kero!" Fran yelped in suprise at the move.

There was an pause, before Mammon asked awkwardly, "Did you just... ribbit at me?"

Fran blushed and looked away, before beginning to draw circles in the snow. "Uhh... no?"

Mammon huh'd and got back to digging. 'Bel's gotten himself pretty deep into that brat's mind,' Mammon thought as he shoveled more snow.

It wasn't too long before they had a burrow dug out once again. Mammon sat back on his cloak again and sighed. "I officially hate nature."

"That's not very nice," Fran commented, before moving over to the illusionist and sitting next to him. "Hey," he said after a moment of silence.

"What?" asked Mammon, clearly very tired.

"Do you want to sleep in the cave tonight?" Fran asked. Mammon looked at him, incredulous.

"Na- I... wh... can't... uh... I mean... uhm...," he stuttered, expression still showing evident disbelief.

"No, no, sorry, bad suggestion," Fran agreed, "I just thought you might want to sleep somewhere comfortable..."

"Well, is there enough room for us both in there?" the illusionist asked quietly.

Fran shrugged and crawled into the cave to look. After a bit of thought, he shouted out at Mammon, "Yeah, you should be able to stay in here without getting within a foot of me."

"Well...," Mammon hummed as he slid himself into the burrow as well. The two just stayed silent, looking into each other's eyes, and soon, Fran felt just how comfortable they were with each other. "Are you sure you'd be alright with this...?" the phantom asked.

"I trust you," Fran replied, his voice a mere whisper.

"... You're so stupid," sighed Mammon.

"I guess so," Fran agreed. There was another small silence, in which they looked out the entrance to their cave and saw that it was nightfall already. "Well... good... night...," Fran murmured.

"Good night," Mammon returned.

And the two fell asleep with a peaceful aura about them.

-End Chapter

Aww~! Yeah, I decided to make this chapter nice and cute. The little interruption was Mukuro if you didn't already know. Anyways, don't worry, 'cause there is NO WAY I'm going to let Fran and Mammon get together, no worries~! Ah, I plan to not give anything about Bel away from this point on, so sorry, it's up to your imaginations!  
Fran: I hate imagining.  
Me: Fran, you're supposed to be the cute, cheery character!  
Fran: Whatever.  
Hibari: REVIEW OR-  
Mukuro: I'll return from the other side of the cycle... kufufufufufu.  
Me: Mukuro!  
Hibari: :( Don't cut me off like that.  
Mukuro: *creepy smile* Sorry, Kyouya.  
Byakuran: Leo-chan is getting possessed? This can only mean...  
Me: Yes, Byakuran, I'm planning on giving away some of the anime storyline, which means you will be in it.  
Byakuran: :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D-  
Me: Byakuran, please calm down.  
Byakuran: ... :D Hibari: REVIEW OR BE ATTACKED BY THE MAN WHO RETURNED FROM HELL!  
Skull: That's me!  
Hibari: No... I was talking about Mukuro.  
Mukuro: Kufufu~. *glares at Skull while smiling creepily*  
Skull: G-gulp! *runs*  
Bel: THE PRINCE WANTS YOU ALL TO REVIEW!  
Me: Alright, these author's notes are long enough, guys, calm down.  
Mammon: I want you to review too!  
Me: Mammon!  
Mammon: ...sorry...  
Me: *groan* *notices other people looking at expectantly. Alright. Fine. Please Review!


	11. Chapter 11: No Time to Rest

A Royal Winter Chapter Eleven

Who thought that the last chapter was too fluffy? Or do you like the fluff after all of the serious things Fran's had to go through? Huh.  
Fran: Stop asking questions and get to the story. Me: Hai. OHBUTWAIT! IF YOU HAVE NOT READ 'A ROYAL MEETING,' PLEASE DO SO~! I give spoilers to it in this chap, so if you haven't read it...  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Alright, I'll untie the boat, so you get on."

"Mm'kay... *yawn*."

Fran stepped into the wooden craft he and Mammon had made, and hugged his knees close. "It's even colder out today," he protested.

"It'll be warming up soon enough," Mammon sighed, untying the rope that tethered the boat to the low tree branch and hopping into the boat just as it began to move down the current.

"Man, it's not much fun to just sit in a boat all day," Fran protested, leaning back against the edge of the boat.

"Well, it's either this, or break a few bones trying to survive in other conditions," Mammon growled. "What do you suppose everyone's doing right now?" he asked Fran.

"Master's probably back in prison," Fran murmured, "and Hibari's probably working on the plan Ken, Chikusa, him and I were developing before all this. I'll bet Bel's busy turning the Varia headquarters into a house filled with traps- he seems to have the wierdest obsession with seeing people fall for his pranks."

"Heh, that's true. One time, he decided to try a trapdoor on me. He was dumfounded when he found out I could float."

Fran laughed lightly, "I can just see that look on his face- I think I've actually seen it before when I've made a few smart remarks."

"Hm? As far as I know, Bel doesn't get affected by what others say," Mammon said.

"On our first assignment together, I slapped myself because I was thinking how cool it was that Bel could track down a victim with whatever information was provided, and when he asked me why Froggy slapped himself, I replied 'To make sure he's not dreaming and that the fake-prince is actually doing something right for once,'" Fran recalled, remembering how much he'd freaked out around Bel during their early relationship.

"Oh, Bel must've hated that. Did you always call him fake prince?" Mammon asked.

"Fake, fallen, idiotic, psychotic, insane, stupid, I was pretty mean to him," Fran chuckled.

"Huh. So I suppose you just started calling him 'Bel-senpai' after a while," Mammon inquired.

"Yep. Though I still call him fake or fallen when he gets on my nerves," Fran said.

Mammon gave a deep chuckle. "Bel IS a pretty crazy guy," he commented.

"I doubt he's changed much over the years- maybe a bit taller, a little more unkept; have you seen his hair?"

"I don't think he bothers to brush it anymore," Mammon laughed. The two shared a moment in the humor of their imaginations, before Fran suddenly quieted. "Is something wrong?" Mammon asked. Fran was looking at him oddly.

"No... I guess not," Fran whispered, "it's just... I didn't think we'd be able to get along so well."

"Yeah, you're right," Mammon agreed, "Maybe it's because... We both know Bel, we're both Mist, we were both members of the Varia, we're very similar."

"That's true, we even have the same markings under our eyes," Fran added, indicating to the light purple triangles that appeared just beneath his eyelids.

"Do you possibly think... we're somehow related?" Mammon asked.

"No," Fran said, "I know for a fact that I have no blood relatives alive."

"... Is there a particular reason for that?" Mammon questioned quietly. Fran shook his head once more.

"I don't remember what happened. ... Can we actually... stop talking about it...?" he murmured.

"Yeah, sorry," the phantom whispered, "Anything else you want to talk about?"

"... Uh... How about what we'll do when we get back?" Fran suggested, "We'll need to explain to Bel that you aren't going to be... like you were a while ago."

"Mm... I suppose so," the older illusionist agreed, "He'll probably freak out over you first though- I doubt he'll even notice me."

"Right... well, you should go in first then," Fran said.

"Woah, absolutely not!" Mammon refused instantly, "When I was still thinking about whether or not to kill you, I realized just how angry Bel would get if I came into the Varia headquarters after killing you- did you know that Bel can smell blood?"

"Oh yes," Fran breathed, recalling how the prince had used a trail of bloody knives to find his way back from the kitchen when they were in the Vongola base.

"Well, he'd be able to tell if I'd killed someone. And it wouldn't take long for him to realize that I killed you. Now, at this point, we've been close, without a doubt, he'd be able to detect your scent on me and he'd jump to the wrong conclusion. I tell you, that prince is very sensitive to smells- as wierd as it sounds- One time, he thought that I'd gone out and killed a cow, but I really just stole steak from bossu," Mammon rambled.

"Oh, he didn't find out, did he?"

"Bossu? Oh, he didn't find out. He thought that we just had low stock, Squalo took the fall for that," the ghost explained between chuckles.

"Poor long-haired commander," Fran commented.

"Huh. He didn't mind, he likes it when Xanxus yells at him, though he disguises that very well," Mammon laughed.

"Oh, he doesn't bother to hide that anymore, didn't you know? Xanxus actually confessed to Squalo in the Vongola base- they're lovers now."

"Hm? It's about time the boss chose someone, I was almost scared that he'd choose Levi."

"Levi? Huh, Levi's... not... exactly..."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Mammon agreed. "Anyway, we're off topic. How do we explain all this to-"

"Ah- Mammon!" yelped Fran, realizing that they were approaching a few rocks.

"Oh, it's fine," muttered Mammon, casting an illusion to make the rocks lift up into the air and hang there, suspended. After they'd passed the area, Mammon lowered them back down, and turned back to Fran. "There's a turn coming up too, we'll have to do a bit of work to keep this thing on track." Fran nodded and looked forward. It was a turn that headed for the tracks.

"Uhm... M-mammon...?" Fran whispered, "You see where it's turning, right?"

"See, this is what happens when you have your eyes glued to a book during a train ride," the phantom hissed, "it goes under the tracks and turns left again so we'll be able to stay on track."

"O-okay," Fran managed, before waiting for the turn. It wasn't much work to get the boat to turn with the river, especially with Mammon's assistance. Soon, they were centered in the river again. Mammon sighed and leaned back.

(A/N: 'A ROYAL MEETING' SPOILER AHEAD!)

"Remember when I cast that illusion on Mukuro when he kissed you... I made him look like Bel, so you were kissing him back... heh... I was so jealous..."

"You sure were," Fran sighed, "Wrecked my relationship with both. Mukuro thought I was just kissing him, but I thought he was Bel, then Bel saw when you lifted the illusion, Bel freaked and ran away, I chased after him after yelling at Mukuro, then Hibari and Mukuro hooked up, you and Bel... sort of... I was so bummed for a while, but then Hibari told me what had happened, blah blah blah, you ran away," he ranted. (A/N: Spoiiiilerrrrr...)

"Huh, you should've sensed the illusion anyway," Mammon muttered.

"Love is blind," Fran said, before adding under his breath, "I hate cliche phrases..."

"So do I," chuckled the phantom. "Off topic again. What do we tell the Bel?"

"Ding," answered Fran with a smirk.

"Uh, no." Fran gave an almost Lussuria-worthy giggle, winced at himself, and said, "Alright, uhh... I'm not sure... We should probably wait for his reaction."

"Maybe so."

* * *

A week later...

"Damn it," cursed Mammon, punching a nearby tree and getting even more frustrated when he failed to leave a mark.

"It's alright," said Fran, "We've gotten pretty far, and we should be able to walk the rest of the way." Even as he spoke, he didn't look up from the sunken boat.

"I should have realized that there was a leak," Mammon growled.

"There wasn't when we went in yesterday, it probably occured overnight," Fran tried to reason with the former Arcobaleno. "Come on, it's a sunny day, the snow's starting to melt, the river would overflow soon anyway."

"I guess so...," Mammon murmured, "but after so many failed attempts, it's so frustrating that the one that worked just gave way like this."

"It's fine, Mammon, we have food, we have shelt- oh... wait a minute... if the snow melts..."

"Oh, come on!" wailed Mammon, sinking to the ground, "and now we can't get ourselves somewhere safe at night!"

"Drama queen," muttered Fran, "We can go without sleep."

Mammon looked at him like he was crazy. "No sleep? You're mortal, Fran, you will not survive like that!"

Fran looked at him seriously. "I'll do anything to get back at this point."

"..." Mammon just looked tensely into the younger boy's eyes, and soon sighed with defeat, "I'll help you if your body gives out."

"Huh. Thanks for that," Fran said with a smile.

* * *

"You come highly recommended by one of the Six Funeral Wreaths, so I hope that you work hard, Leo-kun."

"I'll do my best, Lord Byakuran, though I'm really not THAT amazing."

"Now now, don't be shy, if Sho-chan's intrested, I'm all for it. Now why don't we get to know each other a bit?"

* * *

"B-but bossu! I want to get back to Bel, he must be so devastated! I doubt he's even talking to Chrome!"

"No, Sun trash, if we have to prolong our assignment in order to get it done, we'll do that. Go heal someone."

"Voi, Xanxus, Luss is right, we need to get back before that kid loses his Varia quality!"

"I said NO, shark trash!"

"... Xanxus..."

"...Sorry... I didn't mean to snap, I know our situation, and I know my Storm Gaurdian's. This is more important. We need to find out information about the Millefiore more than we need to make a sad prince happy."

"Maybe we should send him and Chrome an assignment- killing is the best way to cheer up Bel."

"Hm... Alright, next time I get a mission for that prince trash, I'll send it to him."

-End Chapter

* * *

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEE~! So, sorry if you didn't read 'A Royal Meeting' after all, but as this is the sequel, I'm allowed to talk about it~!  
Fran: Why 'wee'?  
Me: I dunno, it seems fitting.  
Byakuran: I'm so happyyyy~!  
Me: Okay, now don't get to worked up, this is only the beginning... kufufu...  
Mukuro: Don't imitate me!  
Me: Whoops, sorry, the 'kufufu' is starting to stick, I've been doing it often lately.  
Lussuria: *strikes feminine pose* Tell them about the 'kuafuhahashishi' that you did!  
Me: *sighs* Yeah, I giggled (like Lussuria), shi'd, and kufufu'd, all at the same time. It was... strange...  
Hibari: Add in a 'hn' for me next time.  
Me: That would be even wierder!  
Hibari: Well, whatever. REVIEW OR BE... hm... wait, let me think... Bel: *whisper whisper*  
Hibari: Fine. OR I'LL TEAR YOU TO PIECES!  
Me: Uhm... o...kay...  
Fran: You may stop writing.  
Me: Mm... sure.


	12. Chapter 12: First Night with No Breaks

A Royal Winter Chapter... hm... twelve...?

Okay! I really should be working on 'Viper or Mammon' right now, but I have a problem!  
Fran: You're addicted to this fanfiction.  
Me: I don't think that's proper usage of the word 'addicted' but alright~!  
Fran: *sigh* Get to the story.  
Me: WAIIIIT! I need to announce something.  
Fran: *groan*  
Me: I'm considering a trilogy!  
Fran: NO!  
Me: It would be called 'A Royal Summer' and might not have any plot-  
Fran: What about TYL?  
Me: This would be the year after TYL, because I don't think I can remember every detail very well.  
Fran: You rewatched, didn't you?  
Me: I'm still rewatching- I'm on the ep just after Hibari kills Daisy~ Fran: Huh. But wait, then you've rewatched to the point with Leaonardo Lippi and Master and Bel-senpai and Bel's hairy twin-  
Me: Well I'm lazy! So anyway, If I do a third one, it would be after TYL.  
Fran: Please... just write.  
Me: Mmm... okay. Ne, maybe I can get a series going!  
Fran: NO!

* * *

"Thanks."

"It's nothing, get up."

Fran accepted the phantom's help in getting him to stand back up and brushed himself off. "I didn't know it got THIS dark at night," he commented, looking up at the black sky.

"Well it did. Look, you aren't going to last like this," Mammon insisted, "You need your sleep- it keeps you sane and pretty."

Fran raised a brow, "Pretty?"

"That's what Bel would tell you," Mammon whispered, "right...?"

"He'd say cute, but it doesn't matter. I've made up my mind on this, Mammon, I can do it," Fran told him stubbornly.

"Y-you're too young to be taking on this kind of challenge!" the former Arcobaleno pressed.

"Oh, so now you're my mother? No, I'm fine."

Mammon sighed and followed as the other Mist Guardian set out again. "Look, if I'm not going to be able to convince you otherwise, that's fine. Just see your limits."

"Sure," Fran replied simply, squinting to see the path before him. He almost tripped again, but caught himself on a nearby tree branch. "See? I'm fine," he said, standing up straight again. He was unable to prevent, however, a wide yawn that stopped him from saying any more.

"You're exhausted!" Mammon protested.

"Am not," Fran argued, walking off again. The phantom behind him gave a soft sigh of defeat and followed once again. A howl in the distance caused both to stop suddenly in their tracks. Another high voice joined the first, and within seconds, it sounded like their were over twenty wolves where the first one had begun the creepy song. Mammon shivered as the chorus of howls died out.

"Wolves," he breathed. Fran gave a solemn nod.

"They're a while away, we should be fine," he told the phantom. "Right?"

"I suppose. That was from the other side of the tracks too, so they'd have to cross the river to get to us quickly," the deceased Arcobaleno murmured.

"They can swim," Fran pointed out.

"Why so serious?"

"Doggy paddle, Mammon, ever hear of it? A river's no match for them," the teal haired boy growled.

Mammon rolled his eyes, "Alright, so if they do find us, that's no matter. You've got your Hell ring."

Fran looked at the ring with the number '666' imprinted on it. "Yeah...?"

"Hell rings don't take any energy to light, right? I'm pretty sure the only element you need to get those burning is willpower," the ghost informed him.

"First of all, say resolve, it sounds cooler than willpower in this day and age. And second, no, you need to have the energy to keep your soul from being EATEN, Mammon," Fran countered.

"Well, how many times have you used it in battle? It won't be too hard if you've done it all before."

Fran gave a heavy sigh, "Actually, I haven't used in actual battle yet, just training with Master..."

"Alright, fine, let's just walk and hope we aren't noticed."

* * *

"Say, Leo-kun, what did you do before you joined the Millefiore?"

"What did I do? Well, of course I was just wandering around. I don't have much combat experience, I'm really just a messenger." (A/N: Was that right...?)

"Oh? That so? Hm. Well, every worker counts, right?"

"Please, Lord Byakuran, you mustn't think so highly of me."

"Oh no, Leo-kun, a boss is judged by his care for his subordinates."

* * *

"Alright, so if we can get M.M. to find out what level he's on-"

"No, we know the level- he's on the lowest one- what we're worried about is exactly where he is."

"Will she be able to find that out?"

"If she can get onto their system for a minute or two, she should be able to."

"He has a prison number, right? What number is it?"

"6918! How many times have I said that- bion!" (A/N: I checked ep 194 to see if it actually said what it was, but since there wasn't, I just said 6918. I don't regret it though... Since there's a nice Fran moment in that episode~)

"Ah, right. Fran was our illusionist though, so the plan might not work."

"We'll just have to postpone it until we have someone to do that."

"Haaaaaaaah? POSTPONE?"

"Cool down, Ken..."

* * *

"Ne, look over there," said Fran, pointing across to their left. "It's getting lighter out."

"It's about time," mumbled Mammon, "you've been tripping so much..."

"Well, sorry," the kouhai growled, "at least we're alive."

"Yeah, now we just have to make it through however many nights it takes to get home."

Fran snorted at the other's negativity and tugged at a branch above them. Mammon looked up, confused for a second, then yelped with suprise as a cold slush landed on his face. "Fran!" he protested, using his cloak to wipe the melting snow away. "That's not nice!"

"Don't care," Fran deadpanned, "Let's get going."

"Damned...slavedriver..."

"That's Bel-senpai, not me."

"Whatever..."

-End Chapter.

* * *

Well, it's kind of short but, whaddayagonnado (that's so not a word)  
OKAY! So, Squalo's birthday is tomorrow (Sun., 3-12-11) however I'm just too busy to write a fanfic. ... But happy birthday anyway, Squ-chan~!  
,Fran: Really.  
Me: Yes! Not only do I have this, but I have an essay that I'm supposed to write on the origin of my name.  
Fran: Dragons and Pokemon, right?  
Me: Not Phoenix Ninetales, I mean my real name!  
Fran: Oooooh.  
Me: Uh huh. ... And I should change my penname...  
Fran: Why would you change a penname?  
Me: 'Cause it's out of date. Anyways, so expect slower uploads until sometime into April.  
Luss: Are you going to write 'Muscleheads Need Simple Explanations' or 'We All Love the Cute Boxers' for my birthday?  
Me: If I have time then, yeah.  
Luss: Yay~!  
Byakuran: 3 I love having time in the fic to say stuff.  
Me: Err... alright! So anyways... Hibari, if you'd please!

Me: Uhm... Hibari?  
Fran: He's probably off with Ken and Chikusa- I'll do it.  
Me: Uh, okay.  
Fran: *clears throat* Review if you want the trilogy, or if you liked this chapter. If you did not like this chapter, constructive criticism is welcomed. If you don't have time to review, that is fine, send us mental wishes of faster uploads, somehow I'm sure it will help.  
Me: Hm? You're good at that, Fran.  
Fran: Of course- I've done it before.  
Me: ?


	13. Chapter 13: Can't go on Without Sleep

A Royal Winter Chapter Thirteen

Okays~ Sorry I'm not uploading like crazy this weekend, I has lotza school work.  
Fran: Lotza isn't a word either. No wonder your English teacher hates you.  
Me: She doesn't hate me!  
Fran: WRITE.  
Me: Whimper whimper... And yes, I am seriously considering doing that trilogy.

* * *

A couple days later...

"Come on, Fran, pick up the pace!"

"Mmmttryingggg..."

"Fran, fall asleep!"

"Idunwannnaa..."

"Fran!"

"Urnotmehbaaawss(boss)..."

"Oh come on! This is just crazy! You haven't slept in three days!"

"Wannaseeaprince."

"So do I, but you have to sleep eventually!"

"Wannaseeimnow..."

"Not an option!"

THUMP.

"Fran!"

...

The next day...

Fran slowly woke up again and looked around. 'Where am I...?'

He felt something under his knees and around his shoulders that was holding him. He tried to ask 'who', but it came out as a 'nng'.

"Shhhh, go back to sleep, Froggy, I'll take care of you."

"Bel...senpai...," Fran whispered, closing his hazed eyes once again.

"You're safe with me, don't worry."

And he fell asleep once again.

* * *

"Shark trash, look this over and tell me if we should send it to him."

Squalo took the assignment from his boss and began quietly reading the assignment over. "Members needed- a head Storm user and an illusionist. Target- Sky-class man who has taken out several of Suberbi Squalo's underlings- Hey, when did my guys start getting taken out? Oh, doesn't matter. Time- five weeks- FIVE WEEKS? Bossu, you want to leave the headquarters unguarded for five extra weeks?"

"It won't be a problem," Xanxus growled.

* * *

A week later...

Fran felt the person holding him completely vanish and he fell to the ground. He painfully sat up and looked around him. 'Where... Bel-senpai... uhh...?"

He saw, through the trees, a large building. A building that he recognized.

Varia Headquarters.

-End Chapter

* * *

I know it's not long, but next chap will have Bel and fran getting home.


	14. Chapter 14: Anybody Home?

A Royal Winter Chapter Fourteen

Yays~! Juushi!  
Fran: Write, you nerd!  
Me: Watashi wa 'narudo' ja arimasen. Otaku desu.  
Fran: Narudo? Is that supposed to be nerd with a Japanese accent?  
Me: Hai.  
Fran: Well drop the Japanese, you have writing to do.  
Me: Hai~!

* * *

Fran ran with newly found energy to the base, sprinting at an unmatchable speed. Tears of joy broke through his deadpan mask and flowed freely down his cheeks. 'I'm home!' he thought.

"Fran!" called another voice, "Stop!"

Fran froze and looked behind him. Mammon was standing a far distance away, sadness in his expression. "They have the phantom-guard up," he protested, "I can't get in."

"Hm? When did we get that?" Fran wondered aloud, before prancing over to the different sets of buttons on the wall. "Hm... is this it?" he asked, pointing at a group of buttons labled 'SPIRIT WALL'.

"That's the one. We got it years ago, but I'm sure pretty much everyone's forgotten about it. Our dear friend Verde kept infiltrating the base and harrasing for me to get his research done. That was before Colonello and I fought the Millefiore," Mammon explained, "But I can't sense his presence now, so could you let down the protection?"

"Sure. Uh... I don't know that particular code, though," Fran said, before brightening, "Should I get senpai?"

"Not yet," Mammon said with a smile, "Let's not have him thinking you're a ghost- I'll bet he has no idea what the code is anyway. Hmm... Alright, I know it- listen. It's B2669182759XS."

"Woah," Fran said as he punched in the last of the numbers, "What's with the ridiculously long code?"

"Not sure- Didn't want Verde to figure anything out, maybe. It's not that bad; I remembered it," Mammon said, experimentally waving his hand out in front of him. When his hand didn't vanish, he stepped into the boundary. "Ahh, the feeling of home," he breathed, holding out both arms with a sigh of happiness.

"I know that feeling," Fran whispered. "Let's go in, hm?"

"Do you know the entrance code?"

"Yup." Fran pushed the sequence 1006926BD27G in the set labled 'ENTRANCE' and was pleased to find the door slowly opening. "Together?" he asked the phantom.

"Sure."

The two walked over to the door and walked in side-by-side, expecting a warm welcome from their beloved prince. Their welcome turned out to be a bucket of water that landed perfectly on Mammon's head.

"Aah!"

Fran began laughing with amusement as the phantom slowly took took the bucket off and shook himself. "Stupid Bel! Where are you?" he shouted, looking this way and that for the Storm Guardian.

When all that met them was silence, Fran frowned. "Is he out?"

"Hm... Chrome? Are you here?" Mammon asked. There was still no reply.

"Where are they?" Fran asked himself as he scanned the room.

"Well, let's check the kitchen; if there's anywhere Bel would be, it's the kitchen."

"I guess so," Fran agreed. They walked, arms brushing, through one of the halls, and made way to the dining room. Upon reaching the area, Fran stopped Mammon from opening the door and instead kicked it open, before pulling the ghost and himself back. Where they had stopped, a bucket of- oh, Belphagor- strawberry ice-cream landed.

"I'll bet he expected to get caught in that one himself," Mammon chuckled.

"Maybe," Fran agreed. The two walked into the kitchen, and looked around. No prince. But Fran noticed a piece of paper on the kitchen table and walked over to it. "What the..."

He picked it up and immediately recognized the unneccesarily fancy handwriting as Bel's.

'Dear commoners,

Ushishi~ The prince wonders who fell for his ice-cream prank.  
Anyway, the prince is out, to anyone who hasn't noticed. Someone hit Luss for me~ Okay, so if this note's being read, then the prince has yet to return from his mission which he is ever-so-glad to have recieved. He's probably killing someone this very moment~! (knife drawing) Alright, the prince's spare knives are in his room, for anyone who is brave enough go in there- shishishi- Oh, and the prince is slowly getting used to Chrome as his partner, but Froggy will always be his number one. (heart.)  
The prince expects you all to be home before him, so that's why he wrote this- shishi- and looks like he was right~! Hmm, is there anything he hasn't mentioned... uhm... did I talk about hitting Luss? (checks) Yeah, I did. Then... hm... the prince supposes that's it!

Signed,  
Prince Belphagor'

Fran sighed and set the letter back down. "He went on a mission with Chrome," he murmured, greatly disappointed.

"Don't worry," Viper soothed, "Why don't we go see his- uh... your room?"

"Sure," the kouhai murmured, "Let's find those spare knives."

"Heh heh, NO."

Fran made a false whine and they began walking out again, stepping around the ice-cream that was starting to melt. The two started to head down the halls when Fran's stomach made a VERY loud sound beyond a growl- no, more like a roar. "Uhm... can we eat first?" Fran asked.

Mammon gave a chuckle and turned the kouhai around. "Of course, go eat, you're probably starving."

"Thank you!" Fran said thankfully before sprinting back into the kitchen.

* * *

"Okay, Sun trash, we should last the rest of the ways on our own; there's not many more enemies in this area," Xanxus told his Sun Guardian. "Why don't you head home? You should probably get all the food reorganized to your liking, throw anything that's starting to smell, bring in some fresh food, etc."

"Alright," Lussuria agreed, "Bel probably didn't bother to throw out the old milk before he left, that child~"

"Trash, please, just pack up and go," Xanxus all but begged before chucking a wine glass at the she-man.

Lussuria stepped aside just in time as Squalo entered the room, therefore causing the Rain Guardian to be the one getting hit with the wine glass. After a moment of confusion, the shark understood what had happened and began screaming at Xanxus over it. "Sorry, bossu, Squ-chan, but I'll be taking my leave now~!" Lussuria called as he scampered out of the room.

"That damn Lussuria," Squalo hissed, rubbing his head where he was hit, "He's finally heading back..."

"Don't be happy yet," Xanxus muttered, "You have to get back out there."

Squalo gave a soft whine and crossed his arms, "Not even a kiss for your ever-so-hardworking right hand?" Xanxus snorted at him and glared, causing the shark to laugh only a bit gruffly. "Sorry, I'll be out."

"Wait," the boss ordered, "I'll kiss you if you make dinner tonight."

"Does it have to be steak?"

"Of course."

"...Alright, deal."

* * *

A few days later...

Lussuria was humming a Justin Beiber song cheerfully to himself as he pretty much danced his fingers into the buttons. "1-0-0-6-9-2-6-B-D-2-7-G~," he sung softly, giggling as the door swung open. "Well, I'm home~," he thought aloud before giggling, adding 'extreeeemely' under his breath, and walking inside. 'This provides so much time to talk to Ryo-chan, without anyone else around~,' he thought cheerfully, 'I wonder how he's doing~?'  
He looked at the pattern of tiles that decorated one of the two halls that could lead to the kitchen. 'Well, this is the most dangerous path, but it's also the shorter one,' he told himself before experimentally tapping one of them with his foot. It fell into the ground with the slightest bit of pressure- a trap door.

"Tsk tsk," he chuckled, "Bel-chan..."

After about a half-hour of working himself around the trap-filled area, Lussuria finally made it to the door to the kitchen. He saw the molten ice-cream on the ground and grew a bit suspiscious. 'Bel-chan should've left on his mission,' he thought, before walking into the kitchen. He noticed the note on the table, as Fran had, and walked over to it. After reading it, he folded his arms with frustration. He reread the only sentences that he found to be important. First of all, why on earth would Bel say 'someone hit Luss for me'? Second, the prince was pretty casual in saying 'Froggy will always be his number one' *heart*. Had he already let go of the fact that Fran was gone? Just like that?

Lussuria sighed. Kitchen first, think later. He checked the refrigerator and gasped when he saw that it was completely wiped out. He soon shrugged it off and said, "Bel's a growing boy, makes sense he'd eat a lot... Even so... this is wierd..."

He checked everywhere they kept any sort of food. Nothing. After a moment of 'uhhh...' Lussuria grinned and said, "Good thing I just bought more~!"

After another half-hour of putting away the food that he'd bought, Lussuria thought about what he should do. He had the oddest feeling that he should go look in Bel's room. Lussuria didn't like odd feelings such as this, so he just decided to go with it. He walked down that annoyingly long hall, taking note that every cord on every phone was cut, and when he reached Bel's room, he tried to convince himself that he didn't need to knock, and peeked in.

He prevented a nosebleed when he saw two strange men on the prince's bed, back to back, each hugging one of Bel's pillows, both asleep. The Sun Guardian silently walked in, stayed as quiet as he could while taking out his phone, and began wildly snapping pictures of the scene. After gaining a satisfactory twenty-six pictures, he smiled and put the phone away.

'I didn't know there were cute guys in Bel's room.'

-End Chapter

* * *

I like writing about Lussu-neechan~, mebbe that will help when I write the Luss-Ryohei fanfiction for April 4th.  
Fran: YOU ARE SO ADDICTED TO ANIME.  
Me: Hai. Watashi wa otaku desu.  
Fran: ' Please don't speak in Japanese- it creeps me out.  
Me: *smirk* Unagi wa teiburu no ue. Ano kirin wa nan desu ka. Ano kirin wa watashi no chichi desu. Watashi no ane ga san-nin arimasu. Ano kurama wa atarashii desu. Demo murasaki desu. Watashi no neko wa subarashii desu yo. Watashi no eigo no sensei wa kibishii desu, ne~ Fran: Whatever.  
Me: Yay!  
Fran: Okay, please end now.  
Me: Kaerimiru onegai~!  
Fran: Yeah, please review.


	15. Chapter 15: Lussuria and his Pancakes

A Royal Winterrrrrrrrrrr...

... Chapter fifteen.

XD. I'm in a GOOD MOOD! Fran: Does this mean your going to say a bunch of stupid things that make no sense at all?  
Me: Possibly.  
Fran: Let me check. Where's my record book?  
Me: I sat on it.  
Fran: She's high. *add sigh here*  
Me: Yup. WRITING BEGINS NAAAAAAAUUUUUUU!

* * *

Lussuria placed his cell phone back in his pocket and crossed his arms. 'Hmm... what to do with the cute guys that I just so happened to find...,' he thought, before taking a step closer.

"Grraarru!" growled a voice that the Sun Guardian was sure he'd heard before. But before he had a chance to identify it, something furry began attacking his arm. He held up his arm and saw Mink, Bel's box weapon.

"What the...?" he murmured in a quiet voice. Mink apparently didn't like being held up by Lussuria- or he simply didn't like the taste he was getting from the gaylord- and detatched himself from the Sun Guardian's arm, leaping onto the bed instead. As it turned out, he had apparently been very upset with the lotion that Lussuria had put on, and began spitting over the edge of the bed to get the taste off of his tongue.

The Sun Guardian stepped a bit closer to the bed and noticed the unique hair color of one of the two 'cute guys'. As he took in more of this person's appearance, he analyzed the person as Fran.

"Is he dead...?" the 'mother' of the Varia thought worriedly. "Did HE bring back the body?" he wondered as he looked to the other 'cute guy'. He then noticed the OTHER'S appearance, the same triangles under his eyes, the indigo hair, the hood that covered his eyes... it was Mammon.

Mink noticed the way Lussuria was looking at the two and grinned. "Shishishi~, ushishishishi~!" he giggled, a perfect imitation of Bel.

However, all the giggling stirred both illusionists, and they both opened their eyes at the same time and called out, "...Bel?" The box weapon laughed even harder at this, rolling around until he fell off the bed and quieted.

Lussuria freaked out when both of them woke up, and ended up hiding himself under the bed, which was a very uncomfortable place seeing as he was one of the oldest in the Varia.

"Mink... shut up...," whined a matured sort of voice that contained the distinctive tone of Mammon.

"Mammon... shut up..."

"Fran... shut up..."

*slap* "Go back to sleep, Mammon, I'm tired."

*slaps back* "Don't tell me what to do unless you're gonna pay me."

"Ow, you hit me, I'ma tell the long-haired commander on you when he gets back."

"Yeah, you'll just get hit again."

"Fine, whatever. Go to sleep."

"I told you not to tell me what to do."

"Whatever... again..."

Lussuria pushed himself out from under the bed and sat up, his mind racing with the thousands of questions that he wanted to ask. "Mammon... I'm scared that there's a gaylord under the bed."

"Fran, I told you, they don't exist."

"No, I'm serious."

"Hm?"

"Mammon, you have a nose, can't you smell that? It's got to be Lussuria's perfume..."

Lussuria raised a brow. 'Did I really put on THAT much?'

Mammon made a low grumbling noise and crawled over to the edge of the bed before looking over. "Hi, Luss," he said. "Oh, hi, Mammon-chan~!" Lussuria replied cheerfully.

"Told you so," chuckled Fran, before breaking into a wide yawn. Lussuria scrambled up to his feet and looked at the two illusionists. Seeing them so close without trying to kill each other made him let loose his storm of questions.

"What are you two doing here? Fran, why are you alive? And... when did you start growing a mustache? Go shave! And take a shower, you smell terrible! Did you guys eat all the food? Guess what! I bought more! And Mammon, you look like you've been through a storm- you're soaked! Fran, really, go get in that shower, unless you want me to carry you in!"

Fran made a disturbed face. "Okay, fine, I'll get in the shower... sheesh..."

Mammon yawned. "Should I explain everything?" he asked Fran.

"That's alright," Fran sighed, "I'll talk to him later..."

Fran shuffled out of the room, looking like a child who had been caught stealing the last cookie. (A/N: Huh, I usually use the cookie-child references when it comes to Bel... and he technically DID eat all the food.)

Mammon looked at Lussuria for a few seconds before leaping off the bed and chasing after Fran. It wasn't a good idea to stay alone with Lussuria.

About an hour later...

"So your saying this is all Mammon-chan's fault?"

"Yes- well... uh... pretty much..."

"And he kept trying to kill you?"

"Uhh... yeah..."

"Wait a second... did you shave like I told you to?"

"Yes!"

"Oh, alright..."

Fran rolled his eyes at the Sun Guardian and yawned again. "What else do you want to know...?"

"Well, what happened that got you guys so friendly and have you kissed?"

Fran facepalmed and glared at the man through his hand. "We didn't kiss, Luss, we both like Bel, not each other!"

"Ever hear of a love triangle?" Lussuria pointed out with a grin.

"It's not going to happen, Luss!" Fran protested.

"Okay, fine, second question. What got the two of you to not kill each other?"

"Well, I pointed out that he was lost too, and he realized that if he came back with my blood on his hands, Bel would kill him. He must've enjoyed my trusting him, and one night, he gave me a cast for my broken wrist, which is now healed, he caught me a bunch of fish, and let me use his cloak as a blanket."

"Hmm," Lussuria took in the new information, "Hmmmmm... And you're SURE you never kissed?"

"Hardly ever came within a foot of each other," Fran replied.

"Darn," Lussuria complained, looking very disheartened by the fact.

"Okay, is that all you need?"

"Hmmm...," the Sun considered. But his thoughts were interrupted when the phone rang- causing Fran to flinch when he recognized the ringtone. "Hellooooooo~?"

(Lussuria, shishi, the prince wants to know, shishishi, when he should come back, shishishi, from his, shishishi, mission... ushishishishi~)

"I take it you just killed the target?"

"Who is it?" asked Fran quietly. Lussuria shushed him and mouthed, 'Xanxus', which got Fran to shut up instantly.

(Shishishi! Sure did! Ah, there was SO MUCH BLOOD~! Ushishishishi!)

"I can imagine. Well, uhh... I suppose you can head back now, seeing as your finished."

(Ushishi... 'kay... I'll be back... as soon as I can...)

"Good luck coming back, oh, and tell Squ-chan to get a haircut, his hair is so out of style now~"

(What the-)

Lussuria snapped the phone shut, "Bossu is done with the assignment, they're gonna start heading back- but they might be a while."

"Okay," Fran said, before his stomach snapped at him again. Fran blushed lightly and looked away. 'Wow, I eat all the food, and I'm still hungry.'

The Sun Guardian gave him a knowing smile, "It's alright, I was in a cooking mood anyway."

Fran nodded as the other stood and walked towards the kitchen. 'I'm slowly starting to understand the luxury of having a parent,' Fran mused as he watched the older man.

* * *

Bel sighed and shut his own phone.

"Everything okay, Bel-sama?" Chrome asked, trident in hand.

"Yeah, everything's fine, the prince is just concerned that Luss is even crazier than normal today," he told her, before looking at the bloody knife in his hand and grinning. "Froggy would've never let me kill this way," he laughed, "he hated bloody kills."

Even as he said it, tears made way to his eyes. 'Fran...,' he thought darkly, 'Why did you do this to me?' He wiped both sides of the bloody knife off on his sleeve, slowly so that he could watch the blood soak into his sleeve. 'Maybe the crazy one here is actually me,' he bitterly told himself, Mukuro forgot Fran much faster than I did.'

"Uhm... Bel-sama," Chrome called. "Yes?"

She walked over to him and bowed her head, "I'm afraid I've used too much of my power... I will not be able to cast an illusionary vehicle."

Bel bit his lip. "That's alright," he said after a pause, "You can come with me. Where was it you needed to go for this one-person assignment?"

"It's just a couple miles from here," she replied, "I can give you a map, at least."

"Okay, come on, let's not goof off here; the faster we get moving, the faster we get to your place, and the faster I get home."

"Would it be too much trouble to come get me when I'm finished with my mission?" Chrome asked.

"I guess not. You want my phone number so you can call when you're done?"

"Okay."

Bel took a shred of paper off of their assignment page and jotted down his phone number before handing it to Chrome. "Alright, let's get going."

* * *

Fran greeted Mammon as the illusionist stepped back into the room and sat down beside him. "Why'd he make ME shower? I'm already dead, of course I'm gonna stink a bit."

"Yeah, well, Lussuria is a neat freak, you'll have to put up with it," Fran returned, before looking up at the Sun Guardian. "Lussuria, don't you think you're being a bit too dramatic over there?" he asked as he saw another flame spring up.

"No," Lussuria replied, "I always cook like this~."

"Just don't burn anything too badly."

"Of course," the she-man giggled. "You know, I HAVE been the Varia's best cook since the beginning~"

"No one else ever bothered to," Fran muttered under his breath.

After a while more of watching Lussuria perform random cooking stunts, food was finally on the table. "Pancakes?" Mammon said with a smile. "There's something that hasn't changed."

Lussuria grinned. "Fran-chan hasn't had them before." Fran blushed another light blush when both Lussuria and Mammon turned their eyes on him. "Uhh..."

"Go on, Fran," Mammon urged. "Okay...," Fran said before looking back at the pancakes.

Why did they have to be shaped like hearts?

-End Chapter

* * *

That wasn't too bad, right?  
Fran: *facepalm*  
Me: Whatever.  
Byakuran: I wasn't in this chapter!  
Me: Domo gomenasai Byakuran. -.-'  
Hibari: Looks around for anyone who might interrupt before shouting out "REVIEW OR BE BITTEN TO DEATH!"


	16. Chapter 16: CRASH! Oh, here we go again

Royal Winter Chapter SIXTEEN!

I'm SO NOT IN A GOOD MOOD!  
Fran: Her fanfiction account isn't working.  
So u peoples out there are gonna get a blast of chapters once it all gets fixed~!  
Fran: But for the mean time, there's an error so she can't upload chapters for a bit, however she can put them in her Document Manager.  
Ur gonna get bombarded when I'm able to post again!  
Fran: So long as you WORK and stop messing around.  
Ohyeaaaahs...  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two days later...

"Is this it?" Bel asked as they approached a cabin.

"Yes," Chrome replied, so her assigned partner eased the dark, black car up to the wooden house.

"You'll be okay here, on your own?" pressed the prince as the small girl let herself out.

"Mm hm," she told him, "and Hibari-sama texted me on the way here... he says he might come to get me to help them out with getting Mukuro-sama out of prison." With that, she closed the car door and started to walk to the cabin. Bel rolled down the window, feeling a prince should be the one ending a conversation.

"Alright, Well, see you later!" Bel said as he watched the distant Mist walk away. He sighed and began to back out of the muddy road.  
'Froggy was much more fun,' he thought bitterly as he began to get back onto the main road. 'Sure, he was usually quiet, like her, but whenever he said something it would either be something sweet, seductive, or insulting. I liked hearing all three! But Chrome's so shy and a bit too polite... And Froggy would do whatever it took to stay with the prince. ... But... he did leave the prince... and now, the prince will never see him again.'

Suddenly, something white and furry decided it could make it to the other side of the road before Bel hit it, causing the prince to, in a rush of thoughts about Mink and Fran, swerve off of the road. He tried to regain control, but the car was moving faster than he could react; it was too late already. The car flipped over three times before rattling to a scratchy stop. As blood found its way into Belphagor's eyes, a faint smile crossed over his face.

'Looks like I'll be joining him sooner than I thought.'

* * *

Fran felt a cool breeze sweep across him, embrace him with a swirl around his body, then burst apart in wisps of energy. "Froggy...," he thought he heard it hiss as the fragments of wind dispersed.

"Bel-senpai?" Fran tried to call, but he didn't make a sound. Nothing could be done, for it had already vanished from his sight.

He awoke with a start, sitting upright, tightly clutching the bed sheets between his fingers. After realizing that it had been a dream, the teal-haired illusionist began to calm, and looked around him.

Mammon had gotten up before him and was trying to deactivate all of Bel's traps before either of them got caught in them. Judging from the net he was desperately trying to get out of, the former Arcobaleno was failing.

"Bel-senpai must've been in a really good mood, seeing as he took a bunch of his precious time, just to set up that net."

"Oh yeah, he was," Mammon growled, "These are coated in Lighting-class flames."

"Bummer. ... Wait, how did Bel-senpai, the STORM guardian, get his hands on Lightning-class flames?" Fran questioned.

"I don't know! Maybe he took a bit off of Levi's mustache, now get me down!"

Fran rolled his eyes and hopped of the bed, totally forgetting about his worrisome dream. He cautiously opened a drawer to Bel's 'knife closet' and was glad to find a knife instead of a net. He picked it up, still careful not to touch anything else, and hopped back up onto the bed, where he'd be able to see the top of the net easier. He closed one eye and aimed carefully, then threw it almost with as good accuracy as Belphagor himself. Mammon braced hismelf to fall onto the ground, but soon realized that Fran's attempt had only nicked the side of the main rope that kept the net together.

"Fran!" he protested, struggling around in the net again.

"Well it IS Lightning class," Fran pouted. Mammon started shouting for Lussuria, and Fran, knowing it would only be a couple seconds before mister sunshine arrived, hid under the sheets of the bed.

"What is it?" asked Lussuria, a look of panic on his face. He looked around, unable to see Mammon without looking directly above himself.

"Luss!" Mammon shouted. "Look UP!" Lussuria was obedient enough to do that much, and gave the usual dramatic gasp when he saw Mammon.

"Mammon-chan! What happened?"

"What do you think happened?" Mammon snapped, "the prince happened!"

"Oh, Bel-chan," Lussuria sighed. "So what do I do? And... where's Fran?"

"Hiding," Mammon told him. "Under the bed covers."

"Come on, Fran-chan, what did I tell you about helping when your lover is down?" Lussuria yelled at the kouhai.

Fran grabbed a pillow just outside of the covers and chucked it at the Sun Guardian, who simply caught it, and muttered, "We're not lovers, gaylord." 'Whoops, I'm back into the habit of calling him gaylord,' Fran added to himself.

"Well, you should be," Lussuria mumbled, before looking back up at Mammon, who was writhing around in the net like a trapped animal. "Mammon-chan... calm down...," he told the former Mist. "I'll help." That said, the Sun Guardian held up his Varia box weapon, and held it before him. "Open box~" he said while punching a ringful of Sun flames into the weapon. The box opened, releasing a unformed box weapon that landed beside Lussuria and materialized into a peacock.

"Lussuria, that's not going to help," Fran said, giving up his hiding place. "It's a Sun weapon, it just heals people."

"Oh, I know, I just wanted a good excuse to let out Pea-chan~," Lussuria giggled.

Fran facepalmed and looked around for Mink. He was soon able to find the Storm-class box weapon, and took it. He lit the Storm ring that Bel had given him, and opened the Storm box without a word. Mink materialized on his hat, looking upset that he had to work on a Sunday.

GASP!

"Fran-chan! You have Storm flames? O. M. G! When did you find out? Is this a sign? Are you and Bel-chan gonna get married? Ah- wait, Fran-chan?" Suddenly, the kouhai had begun to clutch his head tightly, and seemed that he was doing so out of pain. "Am I that loud...?" Lussuria thought aloud.

"H-help..." Fran choked before passing out. Lussuria freaked out and sent Pea-chan to help Fran, then ordered Mink to get Mammon down. Soon, both males were huddled around the bed, anxiously hoping for Fran to reawaken.

"Fran... where are you...?"

"Sen...pai..."

"Fran, no... don't leave me!"

"I... won't...!"

"No, Fran, please, stay with me!"

"I'm... here... senpai...!"

"Fran..."

A disfigured car with an arm reaching out the window, the cloth stained with blood. A silver tiara outside of the car as well, the fingers of its owner's outstretched hand just barely brushing across it. Distinct strands of blonde upon a blood-covered head that was hardly visible through the wreck of the car.

"Senpai!"

The peacock's feathers unfanned and it hung its head with bitter defeat. "Fran...," Mammon murmured. For a brief, abrupt moment, Fran's Hell ring caught fire, but, like the struggle of a dying bird, it quickly flickered and died.

* * *

Five hours later...

Warmth returned to the still body, and a finger twitched. A drop of blood was detected on the air, almost masked by the strong smell of smoke. Something brushed over the hand and licked it gently with a stroke as quick and rough as a cat's. "Nn...," the person grunted, now starting to feel pain. His right wrist, he was sure, was snapped backwards- a rather bad break. His eyelids were almost paralyzed by dried blood, yet he tried very hard to open them. He heard the sound of light, animal footsteps, and felt a cool breath tickle over the back of his neck. Small, sharpened claws pressed harmlessly against his sore back, but soon left as the animal went to explore further. It hopped onto his side, scrambled over him, and looked to observe his face. Finally, his eyelids opened, and he breathed out with drowsy hurt.

"The prince... is... alive...?"

-End Chapter

* * *

Sigh... I wish I could add this...  
Fran: Just be patient, I'm sure they'll help.  
Me: Okay...  
Hibari: Review when this chapter gets put up, ne? There'll be acknowledgments in eighteen!


	17. Chapter 17: Lonely, Loony, Liar

A Royal Winter Chapter Seventeen

My new goal is twenty six or Twenty seven, 'cause I'm already at seventeen, and I've gone and done something bad to Bel!  
Bel: So can the prince do the before-chapter commenting now?  
Me: hmm... I'll think about it~ BTW Bel's very OOC in this chap~

* * *

Bel eased himself into a sitting position and slid out of the car, which had been crushed and turned on its side. He noticed his tiara on the ground and picked it up, placing it back on his head before looking around. The animal that had taken an intrest in him turned out to actually be another mink, though he knew it wasn't HIS mink, because it was lacking in a fancy haircut and the ability to cheshire grin. He cautiously reached out with his unbroken hand and touched the animal's cheek, but it recoiled from him nervously. Bel sighed and tried to get to his feet, but stopped when the mink froze in a position to take off.

"Shh," he hushed, settling back down, "the prince won't hurt you..."

The mink hesitated for a moment, and seemed to look straight into the prince's eyes as small whiskers twitched with fear. Bel frowned when he realized that the mink wasn't going to warm up to him, and stood. The mink immediately bolted off and dove into a burrow a few meters away. The prince looked about him with a new, fear-inspiring sense of loneliness.

'So why did you decide to snuggle up next to me like that, huh?'

'Shishishi~ 'cause the prince is LONELY.'

'I want to see Froggy again!'

Bel wiped at his eyes with his bloodstained sleeve and gave a shaky sigh.

"Froggy... please... come back...," he choked. He soon tried to settle himself again, however, knowing that this was simply no behavior for a prince. He looked around once more. There weren't a lot of resources in this place, it really a forest that was trying to regenerate itself after the winter. Few flowers had managed to get themselves in bloom, and no fruits were available quite yet. The prince didn't know of any nearby rivers, but if it snowed there, then the snow must've only melted recently.

He began to walk towards the road, but fell backwards the second a car came his way. Heart thumping in his chest, he just sat there like a startled animal, before scrambling backwards while protecting his broken wrist. 'I'm not suited for this... I won't last...,' he thought in a panic. 'I'm a prince, and, as much as I hate to admit it, I'm used to a luxury life of relaxing and killing people who are thousands of times weaker than myself. I don't know how to find food out here, I don't know how to make myself a place that's safe to sleep at night. The only thing I could make when Fran was down was instant noodles. I wish I had some now... Gah... I hate nature... Really, Fran was off much better than this...

'... I'm doomed.'

* * *

"Fran-chan, just relax and tell us what happened!" Lussuria insisted, trying to calm the kouhai, who had just woken up and was breathing heavily, eyes wide, and just spluttering out random words.

"Bel-senpai... car... broken... blood EVERYWHERE," Fran said in a clear panic, trying to fight his way out the door to track down the prince.

"Relax, Fran!" Mammon protested. "Talk to us!"

"The blood! There was so much blood! I need to find him, I need to help him!" the illusionist shouted, fighting against them.

"You're recovering from your own little adventure already!" Lussuria told him. Finally, Mammon and Lussuria were able to drag Fran back over to the bed and sit him down. "Talk to us, Fran, what did you see?"

Fran took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. "I saw Bel... he was hurt... his car crashed, I can't tell why... I knew it was him just from seeing his hair, his tiara... his blood-covered arm... I think... he may actually be dead already." That heartbreaking thought spoken, the tears spilled over the edge of Fran's eyes.

* * *

Bel leaned back against the tree stump and looked at his wrist. He winced and brought his good hand up, then gingerly brushed over the break. "Ah-!" he yelped, moving his hand off of it. 'Well, I need to do something, 'cause if it stays like this... Well... it won't be good, will it?'

He tried to move the broken wrist on its own, but that just hurt even more. He sighed and looked to the ground beside him. He picked up a thick, broken piece of a tree branch and bit his lip. 'It will probably work, so long as I manage to tough this out.'

'You're almost twenty-five, so take it like a man.'

"I'll be taking it like a prince, Froggy," Bel said aloud, before biting down on the branch fragment and moving his good hand to snap the wrist forward, muffling his cry of pain with the tree branch piece. After a few moments of trying to put up with the searing pain in his wrist, he opened his teary eyes to look back at the wrist. He took the tree branch out of his mouth, satisfied to have at least made a few marks on it, and observed the wrist closely. It was clear that it wasn't 'all better' yet, but it looked decently normal, aside from a large bruise going around it, and, uhh... well... it was kind of swelling. That could be bad.

The prince gulped and tried to move it again. By now, however, it was so numb he could hardly feel it. 'Are you proud of me, Froggy? Are you glad I did something right?' he thought with a hint of craziness before standing once more. The smell of his own blood was starting to take effect- Prince the Ripper was on the verge of showing himself.

* * *

"Fran-chan, do you suppose it was... just a bad dream?" Lussuria asked. Fran looked at the Sun Guardian, incredulous.

"What? You... you think I'm lying?"

"No! No... I don't! I just think maybe it was a dream... you know?" the she-man pressed.

"No!" Fran yelled, before quieting as a fresh stream of tears started down his face. "Last night... he visited me... his spirit... I could feel him...!"

"Fran-chan, please," Lussuria sighed.

"It's getting out of hand," Mammon growled, "Fran, you were picked to be in the Varia. Would Xanxus approve of this behavior?"

Fran was silenced at that. "But... Bel-senpai..."

"He's fine," insisted Lussuria, "and Mammon-chan's right. If you're too emotional about this dream... he might kick you out regardless of you getting back here."

And so, Fran was almost forced to forget about the dream.

* * *

A few hours later...

Belphagor slumped against the rock and sighed before looking up at the night sky. He'd brushed his bangs to the side so that he could see everything more clearly, and he decided that he should stay like that until he got home again.

"Shishishi... where is home?" he asked.

"Home? Of course, it's in the Varia headquarters," he answered himself.

"But where IS the Varia headquarters?"

"Shishishi~ I dunno."

"Oh, is that blood on your arm?"

"Ushishishishi~ Yes, it is."

"Who's blood?"

"Who's? Rasiel's, of course."

"Isn't Rasiel dead?"

"Yes... yes, I killed him!"

"Ushishi, good work."

"But of course, the future KING would be able to kill that fake~"

"Oh yes, of course. Rasiel was always the lesser prince."

"He sure was..."

"Ushishishishi~"

Bel laughed to himself, clutching his head and brushing his thumb over the cut that was still healing. He looked at the resulting blood on his hand and tossed his head back with a wild fit of laughter. "Ushishishishi~! Ah, the smell of blood! It's overpowering! Where's a knife... there must be more!"

He took a knife from his pocket and brought it down to stab at the arm that ended with his broken wrist, but stopped so fast that only the tip touched him. He trembled, having stopped so suddenly, and felt the tears return to his eyes once again.

'I'd rather you stab me than yourself, senpai.'

That was a bit of a wake-up call for the prince. "Froggy... THIS wouldn't make him proud at all! I'm a prince, dammit!"

Bel stood and looked about him. "Just look at yourself, Belphagor!" he shouted at himself. "You're lost in a forest, you're covered in blood, you don't have food OR shelter, and yet you try to stab yourself! What kind of idiot are you?"

The prince covered his mouth as soon as the words were said. "At least... that's what Froggy would say," he murmured.

'The fact is there that I need to sleep sometime... and I'm already hurt enough. It would be crazy to stab myself at this point.' Bel giggled softly, almost in a sad way for once. "Ushishi..."

'It's not funny, damn-idiotic/psychotic-fake/fallen prince-senpai!'

Bel frowned, looked to the knife in his hand, and slowly returned it to his pocket. "Looks like the prince is on his own for a bit."

-End Chapter

* * *

Mmmm... How dooya like d'em applez?  
Bel: ...?  
Me: Okay, yeah, Bel, I'll let you comment.  
Bel: Mm okay~ Me: Byakuran and Mukuro update in the next chapter!  
Bel: Boo!  
Me: Well, I shouldn't leave them alone like that...  
Bel: So long as you don't skip a bunch of information and leave it to the readers to figure out what happened.  
Hibari: Yeah, and are you gonna have 10069 to please the readers?  
Me: Maybe, probably not.  
Byakuran: Hm? So I get to play with Muku-kun?  
Mukuro: NOOOOOO!  
Hibari: I disagree also.  
Me: Well, let's just see what the fans say~ Hibari: *draws out tonfas* How about NO.  
Me: Come on, dude, trust the fans~

Hibari: But I DON'T trust them! They're girls!  
Me: You really should though...  
Hibari: No. Just... no. Ahem. But I WOULD appeciate reviews on how much they DON'T want 10069!  
Mukuro: Yeah, Byakuran's not even hot!  
Byakuran: *slowly frowns*  
Hibari: Aw, come here you pineapple~


	18. Chapter 18: Senpai, Froggy, Monta

A Royal Winter Chapter Eighteen

Sigh... I could end it here, or I could shoot for twenty-six... hmmmmm...  
Bel: Ne, how many others are you planning to do after this fanfic?  
Me: Two, maybe three.  
Bel: Can I has titles?  
Me: Nope.  
Bel: :'(  
Me: Aww... sorry...  
Bel: Meh, alright. Get writing, take the prince home~ Me: Okay~ OHBUTWAIT!  
Bel: What?  
Me:I've decided to actually end it this chap. I'll make it superduper long tho~

Bel: OAO!  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Five days later...

"Sorry, Fran," apologized Mammon before leaving the room. Fran looked up at the illusion-proof binds that shackled him to the bed. Eyes blood-shot and wild, he fought to escape the chains and cuffs, but it was impossible.

"Senpai," he whispered. "Senpai, where are you?"

'I don't know, Froggy, where are you?'

Fran closed his eyes. 'I need to find out more. Where is he? Is he hurt? Is he alive?'

This time the dream showed him the car once again, but Bel wasn't there. A trail of blood led around the side of the car and to the right. But that was all that he could see.

"Froggy!"

And Fran's eyes flew open once more, to find himself in the world of the disbelieving Varia.

* * *

Bel slowly woke up and started to roll over. Bad move. The prince accidentally rolled right off the tree branch he'd been sleeping on, and landed with a squeak of suprise on something that at least cushioned his fall a bit. However, it didn't take long for the prince to remember why he'd been sleeping in the tree in the first place, and as the large head of the bear swung up to look at him with tired, angry eyes, the prince scrambled up and began running away, his broken wrist throbbing with the pain of first landing on a bear, then being used to get the prince to his feet. He sprinted away from the drowsy bear and, without even checking to see if it was following him, grabbed a low branch on a different tree with his good hand and hoisted himself up. The prince sighed with resentment as he settled into the thick, low branch and looked below him. The bear had gotten up, and was lumbering closer to him.

Upon realizing this, the prince looked around him and pounced up onto the next branch up, balancing himself against the tree trunk. He jumped onto the next, and this time sat down on the branch, figuring he was up high enough. The bear, however, seemed to be in the mood to just scare the prince, not shred him, as it plopped down at the base of the tree and curled up once more. Bel sighed and leaned back against the trunk of the tree, and looked beyond the trees to see the sun rising behind them. 'I want to travel at day, but this darn bear just won't leave the prince alone!' he thought angrily, stabbing the bear with his eyes. He decided that it would be safest to just move in the trees; perhaps that would work. He inched along the branch he was on and was about to attempt crossing over to a branch in another tree, when the branch he was on creaked and began to quiver under his weight.

'Dammit!' he thought just as it gave way. He was lucky enough to land on the bear again, who gave a tired grunt of protest before looking up at him again. Bel stood, took a few steps away from the bear, and dashed off once more. He'd actually pissed off the large animal quite a bit this time, for it began to chase after him. 'I really, really hate nature,' he thought as he ran, before realizing what he was coming up to and skidding to a stop. The move threw the bear off guard and it ended up sliding into the river, making a rather impressive splash. Bel took the chance to dash back away from the river and made a break for the road. He'd been following along the side of it for a while, but he decided it was about time he took the other side. A prince, after all, wasn't particularly fond of being chased by bears.

As he began to race over the road, he heard a car coming his way, and leapt across to the other side when he was centimeters from getting hit. The car screeched to a stop behind him, and he paused to look back. The driver of the car rolled the window down and looked at him, a brow raised. After an awkward pause, the car sped off again at a speed that HAD to be breaking the limit. Bel sighed and began walking along the road again. Hopefully, SOMEONE who cared about the prince would stop for him.

* * *

"What's this?" Lussuria asked as Mammon placed an envelope on the table.

"It's for Bel," the deceased Arcobaleno told him. "From Chrome."

"From Chrome-chan? Shouldn't she be on a mission with him now?" Lussuria wondered aloud. He suddenly thought back to his phone call from the prince. "Actually, Bel mentioned that they completed their mission..."

"Hey, we ought to open this," Mammon said, picking the envelope up once more. Lussuria nodded and stepped up over to the table as Mammon began to open it. Mammon pulled out a postcard and raised a brow, "It's from Namimori."

Lussuria gave a slight gasp, causing the illusionist to whack him lightly on the shoulder before he began reading.

"Thanks for driving me to the lodge, I've finished my mission and am now back in Japan with Hibari, Ken and Chikusa. We'll have Mukuro-sama out of Vendicere soon, we know. However, sad news, bossu, uh Tsuna-sama, has been put in a state of psuedo-death so that the Millefiore think he's dead. So that means Gokudera-sama is freaking out, and Yamamoto-sama's father was killed too! Dark times... first Fran-sama, now Tsunayoshi-sama and Takeshi-sama's father! Well, hope the Varia have a good time while I'm out, I should return as soon as Mukuro-sama is free."

"Hmm... Well, we don't care about the Vongola, but if Bel should be here...," Lussuria thought aloud.

"And he's not...," Mammon added. Suddenly, the two understood. "Fran!"

They were about to bolt into Bel's room where Fran lie chained, but they decided against it. "No, we have the information, we should just send-"

BANG.

"VOI! LUSS! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?"

"Squ-chan?" Lussuria wondered, before hurrying off to greet the shark. Mammon followed by teleporting there, and wasn't suprised that Lussuria had already beaten him there. "How are you all~? Welcome back- Oh, Mammon-chan and I have all sorts of news for you~!"

"What? Mammon?" Squalo wondered aloud, before he was dragged into the Varia headquarters by their flamboyant Sun Guardian.

Mammon followed right by Lussuria's side, figuring it was the safest way to go. The other Varia followed as well, Xanxus speeding up to steal his Rain Guardian back from the Sun. Levi grumbled something about being back, before he was ignored for the rest of the story.

Lussuria had everyone sit down at the table and served lunch before preparing to tell them everything. "Mammon-chan, would you like to start?" he asked the ghost.

"No, not really."

"Then I will!"

"You know what, how about we have Fran come in and talk about it, that would be easier."

"VOI! IDIOT, THAT BRAT DIED!" Squalo shouted.

"Scum, try to calm down," Xanxus said, trying to settle his Rain Guardian with a hand on his shoulder.

"Voi, but Xanxus... they're... and Mammon is... then Fran... it's just...," the shark mumbled.

"He's alive," said Mammon loud and clear, "He was wandering around a forest with me, we became friends, and I helped him get back. Now, Luss and I think Bel's lost somewhere too."

"VOOOOOOOOOIIIIIIII! THAT STUPID PRINCE!" screamed Squalo, flailing his sword in the air.

Lussuria sighed and said, "Well, who's going to go after him?"

"I won't be bothered," growled Xanxus.

"I WON'T GO IF XANXUS DOESN'T," announced Squalo.

"I need to cook," Lussuria murmured. Everyone turned on Mammon, who blushed at all the eyes on him. "Here's a feeling I've missed," the illusionist sighed, "The feeling of being pressed to do something that everyone else is too lazy to do."

"Voi, where's Fran? You brats said he was here," Squalo pointed out. Lussuria gasped and hurried off.

"We need to untie him!" he reminded himself.

Squalo and Xanxus looked at each other before Squalo shouted out, "VOI! JUST WHAT HAVE YOU GUYS BEEN DOING?

* * *

Blood. There's blood. That's all he knew. That's all there is. Blood. Overpowering... Crimson... Blood.  
Rasiel. It was the same as Rasiel's. Seeing so much, wouldn't it... drive him to insanity?

"FRAN-CHAN!"

Fran gave a yelp of suprise, pulling roughly at the cuffs that held him against the bed. "Wh...what...?" he mumbled, calming. "

We got a postcard from Chrome. Bel should be back by now," the gaylord informed him, stepping up to uncuff the illusionsist.

"I told you so!" shouted Fran, triumph on his face, however, said triumph was short-lived. "WE HAVE TO SAVE HIM!" he almost shrieked, leaping off the bed.

"Fran-chan, calm down!" Lussuria urged, trying to settle the illusionist back onto the bed. "Mammon's going out to find him."

Fran tried to relax, but couldn't stop worrying about the prince. "He HATES Mammon. I wanna go too," he tried to reason. Lussuria's reaction was so fast it almost cut off the last of what Fran said.

"Absolutely NOT. You're hardly in shape to go out and meet your lover- you're on the verge of going crazy, you still kind of stink, and, face it, you can't float."

Fran frowned and folded his arms. "All of that can be solved by me seeing him," he said seriously. Lussuria gave a highly exaggerated roll of his eyes.

"Yeah, honestly Fran-chan, I'd love to see the reunion of you and Bel make you smell better," he muttered. "I'd shower you with perfume, but I realize you wouldn't like that."

"No, I wouldn't, even if I am an uke," Fran agreed, before suddenly remembering a question that could probably be considered important. "Hey, did I hear the long-haired strategy captain earlier?"

"OHMIGOSH, YOU DID!" Lussuria remembered, clapping his hands onto his cheeks dramatically for less than a second before grabbing Fran's arm and dragging him out of the room. "Squ-chan, Bossu! Look at Fran! I think he got older without us!" Lussuria called into the kitchen, Fran trying to catch up with him.

"Well, DUH, he got older!" Squalo yelled, "You get older every DAY, Luss!"

"I mean, like, doesn't he look more mature? We should've got him lost in the forest earlier! Ooh, I wonder if Bel-chan will look cooler when he gets back!"

"No, Luss, he'll just smell bad and be growing a mustache, what do we do now?"

Squalo looked at Xanxus, who returned the gaze and nodded. The two turned back to Fran and Luss, before Squalo spoke up. "We'll be in our room, bother us and die."

Xanxus stood as his lover did, and the they took a casual leave. "B-but, don't you want to hear about what Fran went through?" Lussuria pouted. The couple gave simultaneous 'no's in response and vanished from Lussuria and Fran's sight. Lussuria sighed. "Well, Fran-chan-" He cut himself off when he saw that the illusionist had ditched him and sighed.

* * *

Mammon shuffled along the road, kicking rocks that he came across and crushing those that didn't move very far. It wasn't too long before the thought of walking got annoying and he floated up into the air.

An hour later, (I guess...)

Mammon stared at the body, which was tightly curled into a ball, knees tucked so close to the chest it was as though they were stuck there. Only one person he knew (and cared about) could do that.

"You idiot," he said in a dark voice before making a move to whack the prince; however, he quickly stopped to think. 'If I hit him, he'll fall out of the tree. There's a slight possibility of him landing on me, and either way, that means I'd have to pick him up.' "I'll have to gently wake him up," he decided, before extending a hand to caress the prince's cheek. Even with his determination not to startle Bel, it only took a single brush of finger against skin for the crazed Storm Guardian to wake up and frantically try to find a knife, which caused him to lose his fragile balance and fall.

He gave a grunt of tired, defeated protest and said loudly, "Alright, I- the prince- give up. If you want to eat me, then go ahead, but, just to warn you, I taste like a prince. Because I AM a prince." Mammon blinked twice out of confusion and floated the distance back to the ground. "And you should probably go get something to mask my sweetness, I don't know, salt, I guess? Uh... and be careful, cause I'm not exactly the meatiest, I'll be like... bird bones, but bigger. Hmm... any other advice I can give the hungry bear? Oh, yeah, the best dessert to follow me is strawberry ice-cream. If you don't have any, just drink some water and deal with that."

"Bel, I'm not a bear," Mammon sighed.

"Oh, sorry, you're a mountain lion?" Bel asked, rolling to see just who it was. When he realized it was Mammon, he paniced and scrambled back. "What the hell are you doing here? I thought you knew I didn't, and never would, love you!"

"I know, I know," the ghost insisted, "I'm not here to ask for your love." Bel quieted as the illusionist reached down and held out his hand, before, with clear reluctance, taking it in his. Mammon helped the other up, happy to have been at least half-trusted.

"Why are you here, then?" Bel asked timidly. Mammon rolled his eyes beneath his hood.

"To take you home, of course," he replied. Bel hesitated and did gave a pouting look; one would think he'd been asked to give up his knives.

"Why does the prince have to go with Monta?" the prince asked, accidentally slipping into calling the phantom by an old nickname.

"Because Monta's the only one fit to bring him home," Mammon replied quietly. Bel looked up and grinned.

"The prince agrees."

Mammon smiled and took the prince's hand. "Should we teleport then?"

"Sure."

The illusionist pictured the path he'd traveled to that area, imagined the road all the way back to headquarters, and squeezed Bel's hand tightly when he saw the building. He felt the prince tighten his own grip as they traveled through constricting space that almost forced them to part. Even though it was unnatural, though, everything untensed soon, leaving them back at headquarters. Bel hugged the ghost as soon as he saw they were back.

"Thanks, Monta."

"Your welcome Bel," the ghost replied, before he managed to summon up the willpower to push the prince off of him, "but you should pay attention to your lover."

Bel frowned and whispered, "But Froggy..."

Mammon didn't let him talk; instead, he walked into the Varia headquarters and had the prince follow. Hearing voices from the hall that lead into the kitchen, the phantom sped up slightly.

'Here it goes. I'm going to give Bel back to Fran,' the illusionist mentally prepared himself before-

KICK.

the door slammed open.

"Ooh, nice imitation of the prince, Monta, he is greatly impressed," Bel complimented with a lopsided cheshire grin.

"Thanks. Squalo, Luss, Fran, we're back," Mammon called, putting a huge enphasis on Fran. Bel cocked his head to the side. 'But Froggy...'

"Bel-senpai?" called a light, familiar voice that sent a chill down Bel's spine. 'That voice is...'

As he stepped into the room, Bel felt that he must be seeing an illusion. There was Fran, looking as cute, cheerful, and perfect as ever. "Fran...?" the prince choked, his voice only a rasp of a whisper. He was pale as though he'd seen a ghost (duh; he did), but blushing more than ever upon seeing the face he never thought he'd see again.

"Senpai...," Fran murmured, smiling, "welcome back."

Bel felt every ounce of pride he ever had collapse in that moment, and threw his arms around Fran's neck, tears of joy streaming down his face, which still bore that undying, crazy grin.

Fran hugged the prince back, feeling so relieved and comforted to see the insane assassin once again. "I missed you," Bel whispered, "the PRINCE... missed you."

"I missed you too, senpai," his kouhai told him, his pale cheeks lighting up in a cheerful blush. "I'll never leave you again. I promise."

"You better not!" Bel laughed crazily between shudders of fading suprise.

Mammon, too, smiled faintly upon witnessing the scene. 'They do fit together rather nicely. I suppose me and Bel just wouldn't have worked out.' Suddenly, the illusionist realized just what he felt, and brought a hand to his chest. 'Is it already my time?'

Fran and Bel finally calmed and began pouring out both sides of the story to each other, still embracing. "So we were both lost in the forest..."

"Ah, Mukuro said you probably wouldn't survive, we both tried to forget about you, I'm so sorry, Froggy...," the prince apologized, combing through his kouhai's teal hair.

"That stupid pineapple, no faith," Fran sighed, "but Mammon and I soon decided to work together and we got back."

"Aww, thanks Monta," Bel said, glancing back at the ghost. But when he saw the phantom, he completely froze. "Monta?"

"Bel, Fran," Mammon whispered, "it looks like my time here is spent."

"What do you mean?" Fran asked as Bel backed away from him.

"I mean, I can't stay any longer," the illusionist told them in a quiet voice, stepping forward so that he was closer to them. "Bel, I have a question," he murmured.

"Anything," Bel breathed, "You saved Froggy, and the prince as well."

"Where do you think I'll go when I cross over?"

The phantom's voice was getting quieter, his form was starting to fade. "What do you mean, Monta?" asked Bel, reaching out to place a hand on the phantom's shoulder, but it just passed right through the former Arcobaleno. Mammon had lost the power to touch others.

"I mean, Heaven, or Hell? Where do you think I'm going?"

"Hell."

"Heaven."

Bel and Fran answered at the same time. Mammon gave a light, dry chuckle. "Ah, well, I'll be scolded for something either way." He held out his hand and tried to touch Bel's chest. "I'll miss you, but you really belong with Fran."

Bel wiped at his eyes and nodded. "The prince will never forget you."

Fran spoke up as well, "You've got a good reputation with us, Mammon."

The illusionist gave a final smile. "Thanks, you two. Farewell..."

With that, he faded all the way, leaving Fran and Bel staring sadly into nothing. "He's... gone...," Fran whispered.

"That brat served you two well," Squalo spoke up.

Lussuria was crying in the corner.

Fran looked up at Bel, stretched up, and softly kissed the prince. "I love you, senpai. And I promise not to let Mammon's help be wasted."

"Yeah," Bel agreed, pulling his kouhai back into his arms. "The prince loves you too."

-Owari?

* * *

I was totally inspired after Melonaise (I know that's not proper capitalizing, I sorry), my fanfiction idol, replied to a review. Okay, if I'm going to go farther, then I'm afraid I'll be leaving out Enma and all those characters that don't appear in the anime, okay? I don't have the manga and am too lazy to read it online, I'm actually waiting for the next season. 'A Royal Spring' will be focused entirely on the Varia, will begin just after the TYL arc ends (when Byakuran dies [Read 'Last Wishes'] and Tsuna and company return to the past). Oops, I didn't even talk about Mukuro and Byakuran. ^^'  
Please review, I won't even have Hibari threaten you this time, just do it, please~ Ideas for 'Royal Spring' will be taken into consideration, so feel free to request a plot.

One more thing!  
Acknowledgements for A Royal Winter will be in the first chap of the third one. I'll accept more reviews to put in acknowledgements until next week. EVERYONE WHO GAVE A SIGNED REVIEW WILL BE MENTIONED! Sorry Anonymous people, I appreciate you too, but get an account~ :D Till I write again~!


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